The Third Visit to Wonderland
by Barn and Co
Summary: Alice once again falls down the rabbit hole and finds herself in Wonderland. She can't get home without the help of the Mad Hatter. But does he wish for her to leave? And does Alice even want to go for that matter? Tim Burton's Alice in mind
1. Down The Rabbit Hole Again

Alice peered down into the blackness that was the White Rabbit's hole. 'It's much too big for an animal, though much too small for someone the size of myself' Alice thought. It had been three years since she had visited Wonderland. The last time she had found herself there, she had battled the Jabberwocky with the help of the Hatter, March Hare and the White Queen. Not that she would remember such a thing.

You see as Alice left Wonderland that day, her memories of the place were perceived as nothing but dreams. Dreams that always started with Alice herself, falling down this very rabbit hole.

"It's so dark down there," Alice breathed to herself as she knelt down to see just how far the rabbit hole went. Alice, who was now twenty-two years of age, had a strange sense of déjà vu as she peered further into the hole. She had the feeling she had done this once before, but couldn't quite place it as she was always thinking strange thoughts that should never be allowed out of one's mind.

The edge of the rabbit hole crumbled, and Alice's stomach dropped as she realised she was going to fall head first into the rabbit hole. Down she went into the darkness.

Now to anyone who was passing by, you would not have seen anything like a blonde falling down a hole in the ground. You may have heard a shout of surprise, but that would have been about it and you would have then continued on your merry way as you wouldn't have seen anything strange, except for white rabbit in a blue waistcoat, that jumped out in front of you before dashing off.

"Oh dear!" the rabbit exclaimed, as he had seen a pair of feet fall down his hole. He dashed forward but wasn't able to see whom had fallen in. And there were no clues as to whom it could have been except for a piece of light blue material skewered to a protruding root.

Deciding it was probably best to try and find Alice one last time before he left for home, he grabbed the material and hopped off.


	2. A Recommendation

Alice however, had not noticed that she had ripped her dress whilst falling in. She was more focused on not hitting the massive king sized bed that was flying towards her person. Luckily the bed had other plans and moved to the left and let Alice continue to fall. Barrels, books, lamps, a table or two and many other things passed Alice on her way down.

The feeling of falling is a very curious thing. One would expect to hit the ground after a few seconds in the air. Alice however was flying through the air for far longer than a few seconds and she somehow had the idea planted into her mind that she would never hit the ground; that she would continue to fall for the rest of her life, however long that may be. Oh how wrong Alice was.

After falling past three more books and a grand piano, Alice landed on solid marble floor. It wasn't a sickening crunch as she had thought she would suffer, as she had hit the wall of the room and rolled downwards. Or at least what she thought was downwards. She was in fact sitting on the ceiling. That was until the room righted itself and Alice found herself properly placed on the floor: in a heap of blue material and blonde hair that had escaped her bun.

After slowly pulling herself to her feet, Alice peered around the room she had found herself in. It looked similar to the parlour at home, though the parlour wasn't quite as dark as the room she currently occupied.

To her right was a glass table. Upon further inspection, Alice found a bottle with a tag saying 'Drink Me' attached and an envelope addressed to an 'Alice'. Thinking it wise to read the letter beforehand, and as he name was in fact 'Alice', Alice carefully picked it up from the table and positioned herself comfortably on the ground. She wasn't sure how long she would be able to stand right now as her left leg was aching.

It read:

_Alice, _

_Upon your return to Wonderland we would advise you it is not the best idea to shrink yourself and enter through the doorway. The Red Queen's soldiers have decided to hide out in the forest and could ambush you on your way._

_I recommend talking to the third door on your left. He knows a safer route for one such as yourself._

_Wonderland looks forward to your imminent arrival._

_- W.Q - _

"So it was a good thing I didn't drink from the bottle first" Alice congratulated herself as she counted the doors to her left. The door which 'W.Q' had recommended her to talk to was a fine old mahogany door, with a golden doorknob. Alice wasn't sure how she was meant to talk to a doorknob as doorknobs didn't talk, but as Alice was about to find out, that didn't matter in Wonderland.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity don't you know?" The doorknob opened its eyes and stared at the gob smacked Alice. "How? Doorknobs do not talk!"

"Oh dear," the doorknob sighed. "Have you forgotten everything?" Alice didn't know what to say so just stood and stared wide-eyed at the doorknob, which stared back. After a minute of silence, the doorknob spoke. "Well let's see if you have shall we? Why is a raven like a writing desk?" it asked.

Alice's mind went into overdrive trying to recall when she had heard that. Her memory supplied her with images of red hair, tea and an awfully big hat, but no answer. "I don't know." She told the door. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

" Not so sure myself actually. But in any case, you got the correct answer." The doorknob replied. The sound of a door being unlocked echoed throughout the room.

"So that was it?" Alice couldn't believe it. She hadn't supplied an answer and the door was letting her pass. "That was it." The doorknob confirmed. "Stay to the path and when you reach the March Hare's house, he'll tell you where to go. Or at least someone there may have some idea of what to do." The door swung open as he instructed Alice.

Alice tentatively stepped through the door. "Oh by the way, who is…" the door swung shut and a click could be heard. The door had once again become locked. "…W.Q?" Alice asked no one in particular now that the doorknob was no longer listening.

Deciding it was best to get on with her journey to the Hare's house, she turned and began to trudge along the gravel path, that lead to mysterious places in Alice's opinion, before her.


	3. Food Fight!

The path twisted and turned before her. Sometimes leading her to nowhere in particular and at other times, to where she felt she was actually meant to be.

After what seemed like hours to Alice, she finally saw what she could only presume was a house, in the distance. A light fog was beginning to roll across the ground and danced around her feet. The path had led her through a section of forest that wasn't inhabited by the Red Queen's cards and she was grateful that 'W.Q.' had so kindly given her an alternative route.

Urging her feet to walk a little faster than before, Alice began to head straight for the 'house'. She hoped that this belonged to the March Hare and that she hadn't somehow accidentally wandered off the path; which was entirely possible, as the path had decided to lead her round and round in circles for a while.

'Well here goes nothing' Alice thought to herself as she pushed onwards.

~**~

Unbeknownst to Alice, she had in fact found the house of the March Hare. Said hare was right now seated at a long table decorated with cakes, scones, teapots, teacups and assorted other necessary things.

He had been sitting at that table all day with his two friends, the Dormouse and the Hatter, who was in fact quite mad. Though everyone in Wonderland was quite mad when one decided it wise to think about.

Right now though, the Hare found it very unwise to ponder such madness as his friend Dormouse slept in a teapot and the Hatter had run off to the closest tree giggling to himself. 'March' as the Hare liked to refer to himself, though others occasionally called him Thackery Earwicket, was nibbling away at a scone, being very wary of the chocolate cream cake next to him, as he had a feeling that it would either jump up and eat his scone, or he'd attack it and end up with chocolate behind his ear. The last time that had happened, he hadn't been able to get rid of the chocolate for days.

Without warning, the chocolate cream cake flew at his face and hit him square in the nose. A hearty chuckle could be heard, and after wiping the cake-y mess away with his left ear, could see that the Hatter, whose real name escaped him, had once again sat himself at the table. That and he had also thrown the cake at March.

March threw his half eaten scone at the mad man who evaded it with skill and then lobbed another back at the hare. March threw a teacup, full of tea, at the Hatter; who in turn threw a teapot.

Within seconds a full-blown food fight was in progress. Tea was being spilt everywhere; food was flying at break neck speeds and hitting anything that moved.

And poor Alice just had to walk into the middle of it all.

Had she been shrunk down to the size of three feet, she would have been crushed by the cupcake flying at her. Luckily for Alice, she was her normal size and only suffered from a bit of icing splattered on her blue skirts.

"Oh my!" she gasped as another cupcake was hurtling towards her person. She ducked this one and found the source of the commotion. A man and a hare were throwing food at each other so fast, their arms seemed to blur.

"CLEAN CUP! CLEAN CUP! MOVE DOWN!" the man cried and as quickly as it had started, the food fight ceased. Alice was amazed; this didn't faze the two people in front of her at all. Was it a daily occurrence?

The hare, with his right eye twitching violently, sat and dished himself out some tea and a scone. He was about to take a sip when a splash of blue caught his eye. Spluttering, he pointed towards Alice, "You! You're late for tea!" he shouted.

"I am?" Alice asked. She didn't realise that she was late for anything.

The hare's shouts had bought about the attention of the Hatter. As he searched for what March was looking for, he saw a girl standing there in a blue dress, but that wasn't it.

"What are you looking at dear friend?" he asked. Then it clicked. The girl, no woman, standing there in the blue dress; blonde hair sat atop her head. The Hatter gasped and his eyes widened to the size of saucepans. "Alice?" it couldn't be. "ALICE!" he shouted; then he promptly jumped atop the table and made his way to the woman as quickly as possible. All the while, trying not to knock over any of the tea. He leaped off the table and landed gracefully in front of Alice, his hat never falling off of his head throughout the entire process.

"Me?" Alice pointed towards herself, not quite certain that she knew the man, though there was a sense of familiarity about him: red hair, big hat. "Your absolutely Alice! I'd know you anywhere!" the man exclaimed whilst grabbing one of her hands and practically dragging her to a chair at the table. It was covered in cake crumbs, so he quickly wiped it off before pulling it out for her. After a moment's hesitation, Alice sat. It felt so good to not be on her feet.

The hare, which had been holding up a silver dessertspoon, twitched violently, "Spoon."

The Hatter wasn't fussed. It must have happened nearly everyday for the past hundred years or so.

Alice was bombarded with cakes and scones and tea from the strange man with orange hair and a remarkably large hat. When one thought about it, he could be considered quite scary. His looks and his personality would be enough to drive off most people, but Alice being the polite person she was accepted it all, whilst the niggling in the back of her mind told her that she did indeed know this man and that he in fact wasn't all that scary.

"Excuse me sir, but have we met?" Alice felt silly for asking, but she couldn't remember him from anywhere. No matter what her mind told her.

"Of course we've met my dear!" he exclaimed as he refilled her teacup as well as his own.

'Then why can I not remember you?' Alice thought to herself. Not realising that she had thought aloud.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity" The Hatter grinned. Alice jumped, not aware that he had heard her. "So I've been told." She replied.

"Been told by whom?"

"The doorknob."

"The doorknob what?" the Hatter looked confused for a few seconds. In the back of Alice's mind, she began to form a sense of déjà vu. She had done something similar to this before.

"Never mind what the doorknob did or didn't do!" the Hatter cried as he downed his cup of tea in one giant gulp. He pulled a face that would similar to something you or I would pull if we ate a lemon.

"What's the matter?" Alice asked concerned.

"Needs more sugar." The Hatter wheezed out. Alice laughed. It was a shame that she couldn't really remember this man. And she told him so.

"Memories are nothing more than dreams come true!" the Hatter refilled his teacup and the Hare threw a few cubes of sugar at his head, which bounced off his hat and landed in his cup. He dipped his little finger into the cup and stirred it absentmindedly. "I dreamed a dream. Then I met you." He smiled sheepishly. "Haha! I rhymed!" and took a gulp of his tea.

What he had said had made sense to Alice in a roundabout sort of way. She figured if she went through all of her dreams, then she may come up with an answer to this man's identity. It would have to wait for now though, as she only just caught the last bit of what the man had said. "What do you mean then you met me?" Alice quirked her eyebrow, as he dipped his head and a slight blush appeared. "I dreamt of something new and then you came along all those years ago." His eyes, which Alice only just noticed the colour of, had adopted a far away look. Though it didn't last long. Within a millisecond he was back in reality, or what Alice now classed as a reality of sorts. "And then you're back now!" he clapped his hands together, and practically bounced in his seat out of excitement.

It was now that Alice decided to sift through all of her dreams and try to pin a name to the face sitting next to her. She could remember falling in a few of her dreams, so decided to go from there. A rabbit in a waistcoat; falling down a hole; a mushroom; a caterpillar named Absolem; a tea party. Ah! She felt like she was onto something. Not being the right Alice; one person saying she was; slaying a dragon; many, many hats. And that's when it clicked.

Wonderland.

"I think I remember you now." Alice turned to her left to find the Hatter gazing at her with a mouthful of cake, a few crumbs sticking to his lip. "Hello Hatter. Who I might add is completely round the bend… bonkers… mad you might say. But not to worry…" she quickly reassured him, as he looked just a little crestfallen. "The best sorts of people always are you know." At the end of her little speech, The Hatter snapped back to his happy self, the hare applauded and Alice smiled.

"Oh Alice! Welcome back my dear!"


	4. A Gentleman

**Author's Note:**

**WOW! This is amazing..**

**I only excepted a alert here and there.. Not thirty emails waiting for me this morning when I woke up!**

**Though I was a little disappointed that only three were reviews…**

**Just remember…. Reviews make the Hatter Futterwack vigorously. **

**~**~**

The day passed by Alice rather quickly. But then again, she supposed she had spent the majority of it falling down a hole and walking along a path.

Tea, scones, cakes and creams were the diet of both the Hare and the Hatter. Alice could only imagine how they managed to stay thin. Though after seeing the Hatter run circles around a group of trees thirty thousand times, it was less imaginable and more amazing. How the sugar seemed to keep him going for more than an hour or two was beyond Alice. She herself was feeling rather sick of the chocolate cream cakes that March kept pushing towards her. And to think she was fond of them beforehand! After asking the hare why he didn't like them so, he responded with an angry 'They eat my scones!' and that was the end of that conversation.

The quite possibly mad Hatter was currently on his way back to the table when the hare threw a scone at the unsuspecting Alice. It hit her in the shoulder. "Hey!" she turned around to face the hare with a death glare painted onto her pretty features. She threw a spoon at him and within seconds another food fight was in progress. The Hatter himself was a little upset as to not be the cause of this food fight, but gladly joined in. A scone was thrown at March and got caught in his mouth; the March Hare had a weakness for scones you see. The Hatter picked up a lemon tart and tiptoed up behind Alice, as she hadn't yet seen him approach, and tapped her on the shoulder. Alice really shouldn't have turned around as she was met with a lemon tart to the face. The Hatter couldn't help himself; he dissolved into fits of laughter on the ground in front of her.

Alice wiped as much tart as she could off of her face before picking up a chocolate cream cake and kneeling down on the ground.

"What are you doing down here?" She asked the near hysterical Hatter.

"I… hahaha…. I…." he stopped laughing all together and adopted a thoughtful expression. "I don't know."

SPLAT!

The cake was smeared all over his face and to Alice the look of shock was just too much. She sat down on the cake-covered ground next to him and laughed heartily. She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so hard.

The Hatter himself had sat up and was now pressing a finger to Alice's cheek where a portion of tart still remained. He wiped it off and popped the finger into his mouth. "Lemon" he stated, then pushed himself up off of the ground and held a hand out to Alice so she could do the same.

Still giggling, Alice complied. "Chocolate" she smiled as she wiped some off of his nose.

The hare watched the exchange silently, arm cocked back with a cupcake in his paw; he didn't throw it though. This was far more interesting.

The night had come, and along with it a blanket of stars. It was rather beautiful to one who bothered to look up, but Alice was too occupied watching several emotions flit across the Hatter's face to even notice that night had descended. He seemed to be internally wrestling with something, though to what, Alice had no idea.

"Ahem" the hare coughed, causing the Hatter to jump and return to his 'normal' self.

"Ah March! There you are! Where have you been old friend?" The Hatter swept around the table to visit his friend, who still had a cupcake in his paw, leaving Alice to ponder what had just happened.

"Night is upon us." The hare stated matter-of-factly. Both Hatter and Alice looked skywards. "So it is." The Hatter breathed in awe. "Twinkle. Twinkle." He slowly flourished his fingers to imitate something sparkling.

"It's beautiful" Alice planted herself on a cake covered chair whilst still looking upwards; so she was none the wiser that she had just sat on the remainder of a custard pie.

"Quite…" The Hatter was looking at Alice. "…Beautiful." The hare just rolled his eyes.

They sat there and stared at the sky for a little while longer. Alice desperately trying to keep her eyes open, whilst the other two sang 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat' a couple of times.

"Well off to sleep now methinks!" The Hatter clapped his hands and rubbed them together. He loved his bed almost as much as he loved his tea and hats. It was quite comfortable and wasn't quite as small as March's couch. He had had to sleep on it the last time Alice had appeared. But March had thought ahead, something rare in his case, and had bought an extra bed that existed in one of the many rooms inside his humble abode.

"Come now Alice! We'd hate for you to catch a cold out here." The Hatter spun around when he realised that Alice wasn't following him like March was. He smiled to himself and shook his head when he saw that Alice had fallen asleep in her chair.

She looked so at peace with the world. It was extremely appealing to just sit there and watch her sleep, but the Hatter knew that there were a few of the Red Queen's cards still about and so decided on the safe approach.

Slowly, as if she was as breakable as a fine china teapot, the Hatter gathered the sleeping Alice into his arms. The hare had scampered off to fix her bed for her. Alice was warm and quite comfortable in the Hatter's arms and the Hatter himself couldn't help but marvel at how natural it felt to have her in his arms. He would have held her all the time if this were what it felt like. She wasn't heavy, just a natural weight, and the Hatter carried her with ease. He froze though when she murmured something in her sleep, but was soon on his way again, as she hadn't woken.

He made it indoors and up the flight of stairs, only knocking Alice's foot once on the wall, as he made his way into what was to be her 'bedroom'.

The Hatter entered the room with a Cheshire grin plastered onto his face, but that quickly disappeared as he saw what lay before him; The March Hare with a hammer and bits of bed lying everywhere!

"What did you do?!" The Hatter whispered furiously. The bed had been in good nick beforehand.

"Wore it in for her?" The hare grinned and swung the hammer about dangerously. There were springs sticking out at hazardous angles, which you would skewer yourself on if you slept on the mattress, wood strewn everywhere and a crazed March Hare in the middle of it all.

"It didn't need wearing in!" The Hatter cried exasperatedly, then realised he carried a sleeping Alice and quickly clamped his mouth shut.

The hare looked around him confused, then realised his mistake, "Oops" he gave a sheepish grin. At least, he gave the hare equivalent of a sheepish grin.

The Hatter sighed and backed out of the doorway and headed down the hall. "Where are you going?" March bellowed, then realised Alice was asleep and clamped a paw over his mouth.

"To the room of myself!" The Hatter yelled. Though it didn't come out any louder than a whisper. He entered his room and laid a blanket across his bed as best he could with a sleeping woman in his arms. Whilst carrying Alice up, he had found out that she had custard pie stuck to her dress. Custard pie, which he would not tolerate in his bed!

March came in and quickly fixed up the blanket for him, for which March received a grateful nod.

Alice was then laid down on the blanket, and the Hatter then went about looking for his sleepwear. After locating them, he gathered them into a ball and began to trek downstairs.

"Aren't you sleeping in your bed?" The hare was confused. That's where the Hatter always slept. Why had it changed?

"I may be mad, but I'm still a gentleman!" was all the hare heard before a thud and the scraping of the couch could be heard.

The hare, not really understanding any of what the Hatter had just said, shrugged his shoulders and continued on to his room.

Whereas the Hatter had dragged the couch away from the window and bought a chair over in order to 'extend' his bed for the night.

Changed into his sleepwear, which consisted of a striped green and purple shirt and black pants, the Hatter secured a blanket around his long frame and tipped his hat to cover his eyes, grumbling all the while.

Oh how he missed his bed!


	5. Twelve Teacups

Alice awoke to something tickling her nose. It wasn't like her sister Margaret used to do; with a feather tipped quill, it was more like the tail of something.

Alice allowed her hand to sweep across her face in an effort to bat away whatever was interrupting her sleep. The indignant whinny of a horse was heard, and Alice's eyes flew open just in time to see a miniscule horse fly out an open window.

"Curiouser and curiouser" Alice breathed to herself. She could have sworn that Wonderland had been an extremely vivid dream that she had made up.

Alice sat up and found her person resting comfortably on a bed. She could have sworn that she had fallen asleep at the tea table. 'Now where am I?' Alice thought to herself as she realised that Wonderland was in fact real, and she wasn't actually dreaming.

Upon closer inspection of the room, she found various objects: a few pairs of shoes, a wardrobe with an array of clashing colours, some hat pins on the dresser opposite the bed and of course, many different types of hats.

'Seems the Hatter works here as well as sleeps.' Alice mused as she swung her feet off the bed and gently landed on the ground. There was no clock on any of the surrounding walls, so Alice could only guess at what the time could be. It was still somewhat dark outside, so she surmised it was still fairly early in the morning.

She also found out that the blanket she had been sleeping on had stuck to her dress. After pulling it off, Alice found that her dress was covered in what looked like dried custard, or at the very least, Alice hoped it was dried custard.

With her only dress ruined and her curiosity piqued, Alice crept along towards the door and made her way down the hallway, making as little noise as possible.

The Hatter meanwhile, had just awoken in a cold sweat, causing his hat to fall to the floor with a dull thud, and was currently making himself some tea to calm the nerves. The nightmare, which had awoken him from what used to be such a peaceful slumber was the one, he always seemed to have when he dreamt of Alice. It consisted of long walks in the sun, tea, cakes and scones, and just when it all seemed to be going well, the Red Queen and her guards would show up and Alice would disappear through the rabbit hole, leaving Wonderland to fend for itself.

Though he knew it would never happen, as the Queen had already been exiled, it never failed to bother him.

He lined up several teacups onto the bench top in front of him and poured tea into each one. Then in quick succession, downed each scolding cup like you or I would with a shot glass. You could say that tea to the Hatter was like alcohol to an alcoholic. Addictive.

It was while he was refilling his several teacups, that Alice descended the stairs and found him to the right, in the little kitchen.

"Hello" Alice spoke quietly as she wasn't at all certain as to the whereabouts of the March Hare. She had heard some strange noise that could have been snoring a few doors down from the Hatter's room, but she couldn't be sure.

The Hatter jumped, causing some of his tea to slosh out the side of his teacup and burn his hand. Instantly the hand went to the mouth and he sucked on it, trying to ease the pain. "Oh! I'm terribly sorry!" Alice rushed towards the Hatter to help, but he just held his other hand up in the air to ward her off. After a few seconds, his hand left his mouth and he gave Alice a smile. "Can't waste perfectly good tea now, can we?" Alice couldn't help but shake her head and smile. Once a tea addict, always a tea addict. "Of course not." She confirmed, then noticed just how many teacups were situated on the bench. "Hatter, how much tea have you had already?" he looked down and gasped in shock.

"Where did the last five go?!" he began pouring through the cupboards in order to find his missing teacups. Alice did the math and all up that equalled to twelve cups of tea. "You have twelve cups of tea?" Alice couldn't really believe it. But then again, she had seen how much he had drunk yesterday and it didn't become quite that impossible to imagine anymore. "Only way to start the day my dear." he smiled kindly as he downed another teacup and passed one to her. "For the lady." he bowed dramatically, nearly smashing his head onto the bench top. 'It's a good thing that his hat wasn't on his head or he would have knocked over every single teacup' Alice giggled at the mental picture her imagination had created for her; the mad man frantically trying to drink the tea off of the bench surface before it went to waste on the ground. It really was quite amusing.

They had sat in companionable silence for a little while until the Hatter had focused his eyes on her now ruined dress. Alice felt quite uncomfortable under his scrutiny, but that slowly disappeared as he exclaimed that she should go upstairs while he whipped up something for her to wear. At first Alice politely objected to the matter, but after the Hatter's insistence, she gave in. "As long as it's not pink." Alice said.

"As the lady wishes." the Hatter bounced up the stairs and headed towards his room to find a tape measure, with a wary Alice following in his stead.

Now the Hatter was by trade just that. A hatter. You or I would find it quite strange to be known as our professions, as did the Hatter at first, for he did in fact have an actual name, Tarrant. But after several years and his decline in mental stability, he did not mind one bit.

The Hatter was extremely talented and really rather good at his job, though on occasions he did get bored from time to time and try something new for a change. It was at one of these times that he realised he could create a fairly good dress. Sure they weren't as good as a quality dressmaker's, but they were pretty darn close.

"Hold still!" the Hatter instructed as he flourished the tape measure. Alice froze. She would hate to anger the man who would be making her clothing for her. Who knows what he could do; pull the seams in so she could not breathe perhaps?

He whirled the tape measure about and got to work. Recording measurements here and there when needed. Alice had only stood there for about ten minutes or so, when the Hatter announced that he had sufficient enough measurements to make her a dress. She was then promptly kicked out and the door was locked.

From outside of the room Alice could hear the crashing about of machinery and scissors whirring along as if they were possessed. Alice decided to leave the Hatter to his work. He would call her if she were needed. She hoped.

'What a strange man.' Alice thought as she descended the stairs in search of breakfast.

The crashing about of the Hatter's had woken the poor Thackery Earwicket, who had somehow managed to sleep on the ruins of Alice's mattress. He thought it was quite comfortable and was not at all convinced that the bed hadn't needed wearing in.

Yawning, he slowly made his way downstairs, but not without first peeping through the keyhole of the Hatter's door. Materials of all different colours were flying everywhere. The Hatter's hands were a blur of white as he moved from one side of the room to the other, talking to himself all the while. "Needs more green…. No! A splash of sparkle instead!"

March knew better than to interrupt his friend when he was working. The last time he had done so, the Hatter's eyes had turned from green to an angry yellow of sorts and he had become just a little scary, in March's opinion.

He wondered where Alice was. Was she amongst all that flying material? Or had the madman shooed her out?

He supposed he would soon find out.

Alice was currently occupying the kitchen and making her much loved 'secret tea recipe'. It was one she had made up whilst bored one day. Alice poured her tea into all the teacups that the Hatter had left residing on the bench. She wasn't sure how much tea the March Hare drank, but if it were anything like the Hatter, she would have to be prepared.

Said hare hopped off the last step and sleepily sniffed the air. "Is that tea I smell?"

Alice nodded. "My very own recipe." She offered him a teacup, which he took warily. The last time he had drunk the Hatter's 'very own recipe' it had knocked him out cold; something, which the Hatter had found greatly amusing. He would still recount the story if you asked him ever so nicely.

March took a sip of the tea and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. "This is amazing! Tea could never taste grander!" he hugged Alice, causing his tea to slosh onto her dress. It didn't really matter all that much to Alice though, as her dress was ruined already.

"Hatter! Hatter! You must come try this!" March hollered at the top of his lungs. There was no response. "HATTER!" March tried again.

This time, a faint cry of victory could be heard from upstairs. "FINISHED!" The Hatter cried.

**Author's Note:**

**WOW. **

**Over the course of yesterday, I received a total of 140 emails, alerting me as to how much you all enjoy my story.**

**That is amazing and you all made my day!**

**Thank you so much!**

**Oh and here's a little something for you all:**

'**What colour do you think the dress will be?'**


	6. A Dress For Dear Alice

Alice and March just sat and waited for the Hatter's return. He practically flew down the stairs in his excitement and skipped the last two stairs all together. Alice would have tripped down those two, so she was mightily impressed.

"It's done! It's finished! It's magnifique!" he flailed his arms in the air while dancing on the spot.

"Hatter!" the Hatter wouldn't pay March any attention, as he was too excited to listen to anything just yet. He wanted to yank Alice up the stairs and dress her himself, as if she was a life sized doll. But he knew she probably wouldn't take too kindly to that. "HATTER!" the March Hare bellowed at the top of his lungs, and luckily, caught the attention of the Hatter, who was trying to imagine Alice's reaction if he did indeed dress her up like a doll.

"Hmm? What is it March dear friend?"

"Tea! This tea! Try it!" the hare bounded forward with a teacup in one paw and thrust it into the madman's awaiting hands. "Is it a secret recipe?" The Hatter asked warily. 'Secret recipes' never went according to plan in Wonderland.

"Not a recipe of mine. It's Alice's secret recipe." The hare shook his head, wishing he had in fact made it.

Not wanting to seem rude, the Hatter warily sniffed the tea before taking a sip.

The tea was mind blowing! It was nothing he had ever tasted. In his entire life! The Hatter greedily downed the cup; not even minding that there was no sugar in it and raced up to Alice's side. "That was the best-erest tea I have ever tasted!" he was so excited about his dress and Alice's tea that he didn't even realize he had kissed her on the cheek, until he drew back. A lovely pink blush appeared across his face and he had to hang his head slightly, in order to attempt to hide it.

Alice however was shocked. She had never seen someone react to her tea that way. Granted she had never met a tea-guzzling madman like the Hatter, but it was still a bit of a shock to the system nonetheless. For a second or two, Alice could do nothing but stand frozen to the spot, though after she had remembered to breathe, she saw that the Hatter stood immobile just to the left of her. She could also see that the March Hare was attempting to get Alice's attention through the movement of paws. He pointed towards the stairs and then pointed to both herself and the Hatter. 'Oh that's right! The dress!' Alice placed a smile onto her face and then turned to the man beside her. "Wasn't there a dress you wanted to show me?" The Hatter's head snapped up, the blush was gone, and excitement now ran through his veins. "Yes! Quick! Quick!" He grabbed both of her hands and ran off towards the stairs.

As soon as they reached the entrance to his room, the Hatter turned to face Alice, his face completely serious. "Ssh." He put a finger to his lips to exaggerate his point. Alice rolled her eyes. "What you are about to see…" he slowly opened the door and covered Alice's eyes with both of his hands. A mannequin lay in the middle of the room, surrounded with material of all different colours. Slowly, the Hatter led her into the room, mindful of the giant roll of pink material just in front of her. "Magnifique!" The hatter withdrew his hands, and raced around to the mannequin, fluttering his arms in order to showcase the dress.

Alice gasped; it was beautiful.

It consisted of what seemed to be a jacket as well as a dress, which all tied up quite nicely at the front. It reminded Alice faintly of the corsets her mother made her wear, though what lay in front of her was a lot more appealing and far more exquisite.

The jacket itself was made of a lightweight purple material, which was soft to the touch, and Alice suspected was quite warm as well. The dress itself was a beautiful pale green colour, which was once again made out of lightweight material. The dress however seemed to sparkle in the light that had enveloped the room. Alice reached out to a jackets sleeve and ran her thumb over it. "You… made… this?" she was lost for words. The Hatter puffed out his chest. Alice's facial expressions told him all he needed to know; she loved it. "With the finest material in all the land" March bounced into the room at that stage and gasped. "You've outdone yourself" he remarked to the Hatter, who took it all in his stride.

"Put it on girl! Put it on!" the hare began bouncing from one oversized foot to the next and within seconds the Hatter was doing the same. Alice marveled at how much like children they seemed at times. "Alright! Alright! I'll put it on, though only if you leave me in peace for five minutes" Alice teased. The hare seemed to deflate, but the Hatter ushered him out and then quickly showed Alice where the buttons were on the back of the dress and how the jacket tied up. Then with all the grace of a queen, he bowed and exited the room, leaving Alice to dress herself.

Alice stood in her green dress and still couldn't quite get over the fact that the Hatter had gone to all this trouble to make sure she was clothed. It was what one could say was a simple summer dress, but to Alice it meant a whole lot more. To her, it meant that here in Wonderland, she had friends that she could count on. In her home 'up there' as people called it, she had never really had any true friends. They had claimed to be, but were never around when Alice truly needed them. Take her father's funeral for instance.

A knock came from the door "Alice?" It was the Hatter. Alice hadn't been able to button up the entire dress and knew she wouldn't be able to without help. That didn't mean however, that the Hatter would see her almost bare back as soon as he walked through that door. "Yes?" Alice called. There was a pause on the other side of the door, as the Hatter was actually trying to find the best way to say that he wanted to come in. "Are you… er… decent?" Yes that sounded about right.

Alice didn't get time to give him a proper reply however as he had already announced that he was coming in and the door had been opened. "Hatter!" Alice shrieked as she attempted to cover herself up. The Hatter's eyes turned as large as saucers and then were suddenly gone, as he had clamped his hands over his eyes as he kicked out at the door behind him to close it. "I'm not looking I swear!" he collapsed to the ground, where he remained sitting, unbeknownst to Alice's silent laughter.

"You can remove your hands now Hatter" Alice laughed.

"Why would I want to remove my hands? Then I would be about as useful as if I was missing my head" The Hatter shook his head. His hands still remained covering his eyes.

"I meant you can take your hands away from your face now" Alice said gently, as if she were coaxing a frightened animal back into a forest clearing. Slowly white hands were removed from a white face and the Hatter's eyes came back into view. He marveled at how well he had made the dress; it fit Alice perfectly. He then also realised that Alice had been decent the entire time. "Hey!" he cried as he lifted himself off of the material covered ground.

Alice giggled, "Well that's what you can expect if you just walk into rooms like that."

The Hatter huffed, and Alice couldn't quite catch the unintelligible remark he had made. It had sounded something like 'it's my room' though.

"Hatter? Could you please help with the buttons though? I can't quite reach them." Alice finally turned around and treated the Hatter to the sight that was her pale back.

The Hatter's breathe caught in his throat and after a second or two, he was finally able to say "Of course."

Alice had finished dressing and both madman and woman had made their way out to the tea table where the March Hare had been waiting for them. Alice had also brushed her hair; using the Hatter's brush much to his delight. He had explained in his roundabout way that his brush always gave him snide remarks about his hair, though when Alice used it, it was silent. 'Stupid brush' the Hatter had grumbled.

"Wow" the hare breathed. Alice was a vision in green. Blue was all fine and dandy, but the green and purple of her dress emphasized the blue of her eyes and the blonde of her hair. The Hatter had done well.

They sat and chattered about everything and nothing for about an hour or so, until the hare decided to throw things.

A scone was thrown at Alice and it flew at her so fast, she knew she wasn't going to be able to avoid it. The Hatter however, was fast and agile and dived across the table and took the scone to the chest, in order to save Alice's dress that he had worked so hard on. He slid across the table and landed on the ground just next to Alice's char.

When he returned to a standing position, his eyes were of a sickly yellow and busy trying to find the source of his displeasure. "Oh dear" the hare tried to hide his in his teacup, though it was to no avail.

"You wretched cretin! Blast you! And your teacup!" the Hatter threw a teapot in the hare's direction, but missed its mark.

He was about to continue with his list of insults, but Alice interrupted him with a loudly exclaimed 'Hatter!'

"I'm fine." The Hatter said, though it sounded strange coming from a man like him in Alice's opinion. She was certain he was far from fine, but decided to leave it. "Tea?" the happy Hatter had returned and was now sitting next to her eating lemon tart. He wouldn't touch the scone sitting there as it had done him a wrong just barely five minutes ago. "Please." Alice said.

"Please what?"

"Pretty please?"

"Pretty please what?" The Hatter furrowed his brow and then shrugged, pouring more than enough tea into Alice's small teacup.

"Ahem" a voice sounded from the other side of the table. Alice looked up startled, but managed to stop her teacup from sloshing onto her dress. There in a blue waistcoat, stood a white rabbit. "Hello there sir. Would you care for some tea?" Alice asked.

The rabbit shook his head. "No thank you Alice." Then he turned his attention towards the Hatter and the hare. "You were supposed to bring Alice to the palace yesterday"

The Hatter and the hare burst into fits of laughter. "Oops!" the March Hare cried.

"Oops indeed." The white rabbit frowned.

"It's not their fault!" Alice felt the need to defend her friends. "I took so long to get here and time just seemed to escape us." She shrugged.

"Time tends to do that here. That is it would if it even existed." The rabbit sniffed. "Anyhow, you will follow me back to the palace. Her majesty wishes to speak to you."

Alice, confused turned to the Hatter, who had thankfully calmed down. "Who?"

"The who of which you speak of is the White Queen" the Hatter explained.

'So that's who W.Q. is!' Alice remembered the letter that had given her the safe route here.

"Well then we mustn't keep her majesty waiting." Alice rose from the table. The Hatter and the hare doing the same, and together, the three of them followed the white rabbit. To where though, Alice wasn't quite sure.

**Author's Note:**

**Wow. **

**Yet again, so many emails.**

**I must say that every time I receive one, I wish that I could futterwack just as well as the Hatter. Alas, I am no dancer. So I just squeal with excitement.**

**If you want to see what I had in mind when I wrote of the dress, drop me a message and ill email you the link.**

**Have a nice day! :D**


	7. The White Queen

The palace was amazing! Alice couldn't help but stare at wondrous sight before her. The whole place was made of white marble. 'Well that would explain being called the White Queen' Alice reasoned.

The rabbit led the three into a vast white corridor and explained that the Queen would meet them out on the balcony. "Thank you." Hatter waved him off, while Alice thanked him. Alice was going to tell him off for being rude, but thought the better of it as the doors swept open to reveal a beautiful marble balcony with a woman standing there; all dressed in white.

"Ah your Majesty!" the Hatter bowed so low, it was a miracle his hat didn't fall off of his head. Alice made a mental note to ask him how it sat there so snugly.

The woman turned around to face them, and it was only then that Alice realised how much her eyebrows differed from her white blonde hair. Alice gave a small curtsey in her new dress, which surprisingly hadn't gotten dirty as they walked here. "Your Majesty."

The Queen floated forward and placed a dainty had on Alice's shoulder. "It is so good to see you again Alice." She then turned to face the Hatter and the Hare, "And it is good to see you both as well. Though Hatter I fear someone has been into your workshop." The Hatter's eyes darkened at the mention of someone being in his workshop. The Queen had been gracious enough to grant him a workshop at the palace so he would be able to hat her once again, whenever she so required a lovely piece of headgear. "NO!" Hatter turned to Alice and gave her an apologetic glance. "I shall return for you later my dear, but I must see to my workshop." Alice nodded and the Hatter grabbed the hare by the paw and dragged him along. March, who was at first unwilling to go, was finally convinced to leave when the Queen said he could go make as much tea as he desired.

That left Alice and the Queen remaining.

"Sit my dear" The White Queen gestured to the unoccupied bit of garden bench next to her. It was the place that Alice had sat all those years ago when speaking to Absolem before the battle. Alice sat and fixed her skirts around her legs. "That is a beautiful dress. Might I enquire as to who made it?" The Queen gently thumbed the sleeve of Alice's dress for further inspection. "Oh a friend of mine did… he really is quite mad you know" Alice laughed at the surprised then all together knowing look on the Queen's face. "So the Hatter made this." Alice nodded and the Queen smiled. "It would make sense. He has a thing for the colours green and purple. I'm surprised you didn't get a hat too."

"There is still a chance I might." Alice replied.

"Indeed there is." The Queen giggled.

They sat like that for a while, just talking about what had been happening in Wonderland since Alice had been away, and about what Alice had been doing whilst away from Wonderland. It was good to talk to the Queen. She knew about everything that had been going on and Alice was quite glad that the Red Queen or the Knave of Hearts had made any sort of commotion since their exile. Alice figured that the Knave had probably tried to do away with the Queen many times over, and might have possibly succeeded recently. Alice knew that if she were him, that's what she would have tried to do, though she also knew she didn't really have it in her to kill a person. No matter how horrid.

It was shortly after this bit of news that the White Queen asked one of the questions that Alice knew not the answer. "So how long do you plan to stay with us Alice?" Alice herself had known that she would want to visit and that she would not stay too long, as she had family 'up there' that loved her and cared about her. Though after much thought Alice gathered that they probably wouldn't miss her all that much if she was to disappear. Her mother had remarried and was happy; her sister Margaret had children and was much too busy for Alice. Perhaps if she sent them a letter detailing that she had decided to travel, they wouldn't worry too much?

"I'm not sure how long I plan to stay." Alice confessed with a slight blush rising to greet her cheeks. "All right then, another question. What made you come back?" The Queen asked. Alice once again told the Queen that she didn't know that answer either, but filled her in on the dreams of Wonderland she had been having and that she had somehow found the White Rabbit's hole and had once again fallen in.

"I knew you would be coming back." The Queen smiled. "Though I didn't think it would be so soon."

"Oh? Do tell." The White Queen just shook her head.

"All in good time." was her reply.

They had begun to talk of the March Hare and the Hatter, and how much Alice enjoyed staying with them, as life was never boring over there, when Bayard came sprinting into the vicinity and started talking to the Queen in rushed tones. "Bayard, take a breath then repeat that please." The Queen suggested. Bayard did as he was told and tried again.

"Your Majesty the gem… jewel… of Underland is gone!" then added, "Hello Alice."

Alice nodded to the dog that was now awaiting the White Queen's orders. "Have everyone in the palace search for its whereabouts." The Queen instructed. Bayard bowed as best a dog could. "As you wish Majesty." And then scurried off to inform the palace inhabitants of their new mission.

"This is not good. Not good at all." The Queen murmured to herself, seemingly forgetting that Alice was still sitting next to her. "You Majesty, if you please. What is the gem of Underland?" The Queen jumped, then placed her hand to her heart and breathed out a sigh of relief. "Oh silly me for not telling you sooner! The gem of Underland is what enables you to get home, dear Alice." Alice couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"But I thought the blood of the Jabberwocky enabled me to do so." The Queen nodded.

"Well yes, but gem enables you to pass through the barrier separating our worlds." The Queen explained. "That, and there is no more Jabberwocky blood left." She exhaled in a loud huff.

"So you're saying, that I am now solely relying on a gem to get myself home? One that is currently missing?" The Queen nodded. "Well that's just dandy!" Alice crossed her arms over her chest and just caught her pout just in time. Alice Kingsleigh did not pout!

She may not have wanted to go home yet, or even at all if she so chose, but to have the option of home taken away from her was not something Alice liked in the slightest.

Together, the White Queen and Alice made their way inside to find the Hatter and the hare.

**Author's Note:**

**Well I'm still getting alerts so that's a good thing.**

**I just have to say that my highlight of the day is coming home and reading all of your reviews you so kindly send me.**

**I love every one of them. **

**Especially ones with fist pumps and epic wins in them.**

– **You know who you are! – **

**Here's a little something for you all….**

'**Where do you think the gem of Underland is?'**


	8. A Hat!

The Hatter meanwhile had rifled through his workshop in an attempt to find whoever had gone through his belongings. So far all he had been able to find was… nothing.

There was not one trace of anything that gave him a clue as to what had happened. He had sent March away to make his tea, as it was the one place that March really wanted to be and he hadn't stopped complaining until he had been released from the workshop.

Frustrated that March hadn't bought him any tea, and that he couldn't find any clues, Hatter pushed a mannequin over and sat in a huff on the ground. 'Stupid hare. Stupid workshop' he grumbled to himself, not aware that he had spoken aloud.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness you know." Alice casually leant against the doorframe with a smile on her face. The Hatter jumped. He had thought he was alone.

"Alice!"

"So this is the palace workshop?" Alice peered around at the great expanse of room. It was a lot bigger than Hatter's bedroom, and it would have been less cramped had there not been thousands of hats lying about on stands, chairs and on various areas of ground. She could just picture him working here, happily whistling away or doing whatever he did whilst making his hats. He would be quite happy here. "It is." Hatter snuck a sideways glance at Alice. There was something not quite right about everything she was wearing, though he wouldn't say anything out loud until he had figured out what it was. He had learnt from the Queen herself that women in general did not like to have their clothing scrutinised.

"Do you work here often?" Alice asked. The Hatter thought about it for a while. How often did he come here? "To make a hat for the Queen here and there. Though I would much prefer to be there than here." He shrugged as if what he had just said made all the sense in the world. It didn't to Alice, but she let it be. Again, Hatter snuck a glance at Alice and her dress. Her dress was perfect; it had something more to do with her head in general, though he couldn't quite place what just yet. A necklace perhaps? A comb?

Alice could feel the Hatter glancing at her every now and then, though it had become more and more frequent. 'What's the matter? Do I have something on my face?' Alice wondered, absentmindedly placing her hand on her cheek.

Alice and Hatter were both searching the room for clues as to who had been in here previously. Hatter had explained his dilemma and Alice had offered to help. He accepted gladly. It was fun to have Alice all to himself. Her being there with him made his heart do funny things. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but it was pleasant.

Alice was currently searching near all of the hatpins and brooches whilst the Hatter searched through all of his material on the far side of the room. So far neither one of them had had any luck.

"This is rather pretty." Alice held up a hatpin with a small pink rose on the end. It was instantly a favourite of hers and she demanded the Hatter to let her know when he used it, as she wanted to see the hat it was placed on. "I like this one." Hatter pulled a hatpin out of his own hat and showed it to Alice. It was a beautiful silver pin with what looked like a sapphire on the end of it. "It is quite pretty." Alice confirmed and he placed it back in his hat. That was when genius of a mad kind struck. "Aha!"

Alice was a little taken aback by his outburst, as he hadn't found anything like a clue, but soon laughed when he exclaimed, "You need a hat!"

She was then made to sit on the floor while the Hatter measured her head and quickly got to work on her hat.

Alice however, wasn't allowed to look as the Hatter explained that that would be classed as 'cheating'.

An hour or two later at the most, the Hatter cried out to Alice that he was done and that she could finally uncover her eyes, which hadn't been covered in the first place, to take a look at her hat.

Alice couldn't believe her eyes; her hat was of a pale blue, much like the dress she wore the day she fell down the rabbit hole, and was an exact replica of the Hatter's hat, though slightly smaller. It had a white ribbon around it's middle and was topped of with a tag that read 'Alice' in beautiful cursive writing.

Hatter placed it onto her head and then cocked his head to the side. "It's missing something." He stated and Alice had to agree. It was missing something but Alice couldn't quite figure it out. Luckily, the Hatter was an expert on hats as a whole and walked over to where he stored his hatpins. Gently he picked up the small pick rose and stuck it into the side of her hat. "To start your collection." He explained with a Cheshire grin. "It's beautiful. Thank you." Alice stood and hugged her mad friend.

The Hatter was shocked to his core. Alice was actually hugging him. She hadn't hugged him last time she had been here. It was all so new and amazing, the Hatter didn't quite know what to do in this situation, so carefully wrapped his arms around her small frame.

She was the perfect height to rest his chin on if he so wished, but he refrained from doing so as she would probably withdraw from the hug that he was enjoying just too much to let go. So much so, that he didn't even realise he had lowered his head just a little to smell her golden hair. It smelled of sunshine and vanilla. It was wonderful.

Unfortunately for him however, he also accidentally bumped her hat off her head and it fell to the floor, causing Alice to laugh and withdraw from his arms. "You'll get better at that." Hatter remarked with an ecstatic smile plastered on his face. "One would hope." Alice picked up her hat gracefully from the floor. "How ever did you master it?" The Hatter bowed, so close to the ground that his nose nearly touched it, and then straightened. "Magic." Was his reply. Alice laughed and together they left the workshop to find some tea.

On their travels, they came across March who was greedily stuffing his face with a scone. "Ello!" he bellowed, crumbs spraying everywhere. He accompanied Alice and Hatter back to the kitchens in the hope that Alice would make of her 'secret recipe tea' and along the way, slipped something into the Hatter's pocket. The Hatter remaining none the wiser and Alice remaining Alice.

The White Queen was in the kitchens concocting some sort of potion when the three friends arrived, and after finishing, gladly accepted the tea that Alice had made for her.

"This is exquisite tea!" The Queen exclaimed. The Hatter nodded vigorously and never once spilled his tea. "It's Alice's 'secret recipe'!" at the last few words he pouted as Alice still refused to give him the recipe for her tea, but she never refused to make it if he asked nicely, so it was bearable for now. Though if she were to return home, it would be another story entirely. That is, if she could return home. Alice had filled her in on the missing gem of Underland, and while he'd been excited and worried on the outside, he couldn't help but dance on the inside. The idea of having Alice live here forever was just too tempting.

Shortly after tea they had departed for home. Alice and the Hatter promising to have a look around the forest on their travels and see if they could find the gem anywhere.

The Queen offered them all horses to ride, as it was getting late already. They all readily agreed. The horses themselves had agreed to return back to the palace once they had dropped off the three friends at their destination.

Once two horses were saddled, Hatter and Alice sat on one each and March got to decide whom to annoy on the trip back. He couldn't ride a horse you see. He picked the Hatter.

With a final wave to the Queen and Bayard, who had appeared to see them off, they left and headed for home.

The trip home had been fairly uneventful. March had switched to Alice's horse as he had annoyed Hatter too much and was banished from the 'back seat' of his horse. Alice had kindly offered her 'back seat' which March took with a thankful smile and promised to behave himself the rest of the way. And he was as good as his word.

A light fog had begun to roll in and was shrouding the hare's house from view. Actually to be fair, it was shrouding the trees, which shrouded the hare's house from view.

Hatter dismounted and thanked his horse, explaining that the house was only a few minutes walk away and that they would be fine. March jumped off the back off Alice's mount and Alice herself was about to slide off the side, when a white hand was held out to her. Hatter had offered his hand in a means to help her off. Blushing lightly, Alice accepted the hand and thanked her horse also. They then turned and headed for home, as did the horses.

What they didn't notice in amongst the fog were the bright crimson red cards.

"How much further Hatter? I can't see a thing." Alice exclaimed as she peered ahead of her only to see more fog. "Not much…. fur…ther." The Hatter replied cheerfully, though stopped abruptly when he came face to face with a spear. Alice hadn't realised he had stopped walking all together and walked straight into the back of him. "Ouch!" Alice peered around the Hatter's side to see a red card standing in front of them. 'Oh dear!' Alice sighed to herself.

"Halt!" The card's voice was gravely and harsh sounding. It continued to keep the spear pointed towards the Hatter, though he was in fact talking to the hare that almost bounded past him. March stopped mid-leap and was meet with the angry glare of the card. "Oh hello!" The March Hare greeted. It gave the Hatter enough time to edge slightly to the right of the card. He kicked out and hit it in the head, causing him to drop his spear and attempt to fix the helmet that was jammed on his head. "Run!" Hatter cried and grabbed Alice's hand before fleeing.

They reached the house in record time and Hatter and March then proceeded to barricade the front and back doors with whatever they could find. The couch, a chair, the lampshade… anything!

They then thundered up the stairs to hide and sleep. In that exact order.

Alice trotted up the stairs warily and found that the door to the hare's room was shut and a light snoring noise was already emitting from it. She peeked into another door and found a mattress with springs poking out from it at various angles. 'Ok. What's behind door three?' Alice pushed open the door to the Hatter's room.

"Hey!" The hatter whirled around with his sleep shirt half unbuttoned and tried to cover himself up. "Sorry!" Alice ducked back out into the hallway, the sound of laughter echoing from the room. "Alice? I'm decent!" he laughed as Alice pushed the door back open to find that the Hatter had in fact been decent that first time she had pushed the door open. "Hey!" she crossed her arms over her chest. Hatter just smirked.

"Well that's what you can expect when you just walk into rooms like that."

"I guess you got me there."

"Got you where?"

"Never mind." Alice shook her head. "So where am I sleeping tonight? Is there a spare bed anywhere?" The Hatter shook his head. "Only the couch down there" he pointed to indicate downstairs.

"Oh. Well I'm not sleeping down there." Alice leant against the frame of his door.

"Neither am I!" Hatter cried.

"I thought the brave men always slept downstairs?" Alice attempted to bait him.

"I never said I was brave. It doesn't start with M." Hatter counted.

"And what does start with M?" Alice asked.

"Mad." The hatter pulled back the blankets on his bed. "The bed is big enough you know." He gestured to show that he was in fact right. It was big enough for both him and Alice. Alice was just a little uncomfortable about sharing the bed with him though.

He must have been able to see it written on her face because he promised no madness would occur.

Finally she agreed.

"Are you comfortable?" Hatter asked. He was to sleep on the left side of the bed and Alice on the right. "Quite. Thank you." Alice mumbled, her mind was beginning to weigh down with sleep.

"Ok." Hatter turned his head and watched her for a little while. It was nice to just watch Alice sleep. He had discovered that on her first night here, when she had fallen asleep at the tea table. "Night." And soon, he too was asleep.

**Author's Note:**

**I figured since you're all such good little readers, you deserved a little something for your efforts.**

**Don't forget…**

**Reviews make magic happen.**


	9. Feelings

Back at the palace, the White Queen walked around her royal bedroom in bare feet, pondering to herself. The bare feet was because the cool marble ground always seemed to calm her after a strenuous day; the pondering was because no one had found the gem of Underland yet. "This is not good." She worried to herself. The gem was most important.

In an effort to clam herself, she padded over to her bedside table where the oraculum lay rolled up.

Carefully unfurling it, the Queen looked over the images and visibly relaxed.

There on the paper lay a picture of a girl with a madman as company. Around her neck was the most beautiful silver necklace; the Queen was a little jealous. It was intricate and quite detailed for a necklace and there in the middle of it hung the Underland gem.

That picture however, was drawn just before it showed Alice disappearing back to her world; the Hatter left standing alone.

Though the White Queen now knew that the gem would eventually turn up, she still wanted it to be found sooner rather than later.

There had been talk of rebel cards that still supported her sister. Who's to say that they would find the gem and change the fate of Underland?

Feeling slightly more cheerful and much more relaxed than she had been all day, Mirana decided to call it a night. But not without first rolling the oraculum back up and placing it on the bedside table.

~**~

The first morning rays bought a smile to the Hatter's face. It only managed to get bigger however, when he noticed the solid warm body of Alice still lying next to him. And to top it all off, she had draped her arm over his middle at some stage, as it was still there for the Hatter to find.

He found he quite like waking up to find Alice next to him. It was one of those things that would be weird if it were anyone else. But this was Alice he was thinking about, and it just seemed right. Actually, if her bothered to ponder it some more, which he did, he found that many things with Alice just felt right.

"Dear Alice, you are quite confusing." He mumbled to himself as he lay there on his back with his hands behind his head contemplating life.

Alice rolled over in her sleep and Hatter had to try his hardest not to burst into hysterics when her hair tickled his nose.

Gently removing the golden hair from his face, he shifted over to the side of bed and slowly got out. He didn't want to wake Alice. Another thing he had learned from the Queen was that woman liked to lie in every now and then. He decided that for Alice, a lie in would be now.

He crept over to his coat, which was thrown over the back of a chair, and shrugged into it. As he did so, a small gem fell out and skittled along the ground to hide amongst the hats that lay there. It landed right near Alice's blue one, hiding just underneath the brim.

The Hatter, oblivious to the fact that something had fallen out of his pocket, pulled on his shoes and headed to the kitchen for tea.

As the Hatter left, Alice stirred. She had had the strangest dream. She was being chased by cards and then with the help of Hatter and March had escaped them. Then at some point after making it home, strong arms had enveloped her in a hug. Her brain had been too addled with sleep to register whose arms they had been. She had just enjoyed the feel of them.

Alice had slept for an hour or so longer when she realised that she had fallen asleep with the Hatter at her side. Carefully, as not to wake him if he were still there, Alice poked a toe in his direction. When it collided with nothing but the hardly warm mattress, she deduced that he had gone downstairs for his twelve cups of tea.

Figuring it was probably best if she got up as well, Alice stretched and yawned. She used the Hatter's 'rude' brush to get rid of the knots in her hair and then went in search of her hat.

Once finally locating it amongst all of the other hats, Alice took a step towards it only to step on something else. A crunching sound was heard and upon further inspection Alice realised that she had stepped on one of the crystals that Hatter used for his hats.

"Must have fallen off of that one." Alice spoke to herself as there was no one else in the room. The hat of which she spoke of was a vivid purple colour and was covered in all sorts of sparkly things. Whatever sparkly thing you could think of, Hatter had placed it on that hat.

Not thinking very much of it, Alice placed the small crystal onto the dresser where all of the hatpins were kept, before heading downstairs in search of breakfast and a cup of tea.

"Hello dear friend" a velvety voice greeted the Hatter as he made his way to the kitchen, causing him to jump. Luckily this time however, there was no tea to be spilt. The Cheshire Cat hovered just next to his hat and instinctively he took three steps to the side to make sure it stayed there. He hated it when Cheshire tried to steal it from him. It was his hat for goodness sake! "Chessur." Hatter gave the cat a curt nod before continuing on his way. "Oh. Yes. Hello to you too Hatter." Chessur hadn't meant to be so rude, he just really like that hat. Hatter glared. 'Stupid cat.' He thought.

"I heard you had a run in with the Red Queen's cards last night?" the cat's body twisted and lay on its back; his head staying the right way up and with a huge toothy grin painted in place. "How did you know?" The Hatter was suspicious. He wouldn't put it past the cat to pull something like that. He had done it once already. He had fooled the Red Queen herself when he had pretended to be Hatter. "My friend, I always know." The cat smiled, and looked longingly at the huge hat atop the Hatter's head. "Just like I know that you love Alice." He teased.

"WHAT?!" The Hatter roared, though clamped a white hand over his mouth when he remembered he wasn't going to wake Alice this morning. "Aha! So you don't deny it then?" the cat disappeared and reappeared on the bench top in front of Hatter, who was busy pouring tea into teacups. "I don't know what ever you mean." The Hatter refused to meet the cats glowing orb like eyes, as he was somewhat afraid of what he would find there. "Come now…" the cat purred. "Where did Alice spend the night if the couch was against the door?" Chessur pointed to the couch, which was askew in the middle of the room. 'March must have made it move' Hatter reasoned thought to himself. "In a bed is where she spent her night." He replied as he took a sip of tea. Chessur nodded. "And where did you spend the night?"

"In a bed." Another sip of tea was taken.

"And which bed was that if there are only two beds in this house?" The cat's body once again rolled over onto its back, though the head never moved.

"It means nothing!" The Hatter cried exasperated. He hadn't had his morning tea yet and this conversation hurt his head. He didn't need the Cheshire Cat's help to sort through the new set of pleasant feelings he had.

"So you confirm that you both shared a bed?" Hatter really wanted to wipe that humongous grin of the darn cat's face.

"We fell asleep in the same bed. If that is what you are insinuating. Noting more." The Hatter bought the conversation to a close, then drank the last five cups of tea in a hurry.

"Now where's March?"

"At the tea table."

"He started without me?!"

"It would seem that way."

What had started off as a good morning was now a mediocre one as Hatter made his way outside to the tea table, grumbling to himself about meddling cats and impatient hares.

Alice made her presence known at the table a little while after Hatter and Chessur had sat themselves down. "Alice?" The Cheshire Cat's body disappeared but his head remained.

"Yes?" Alice sat down next to the Hatter, who had been awfully quiet since he had sat down. He was trying to sort through his emotions. Did he really love Alice? Yes he believed he did, but he had only though it was a love between friends. It was only after the cat had said something, did he question himself, dodging a scone here and there whilst doing so. "THE Alice?" The Cheshire Cat asked. Alice nodded.

"Hello Chessur." Said cat promptly disappeared from his chair and hugged Alice around the shoulders with his tail. "It's good to see you again my dear. Everyone missed you terribly." His eyes strayed to the Hatter sitting to Alice's side. 'Well one of us missed you more than the rest of us' he thought to himself.

"I found that out the day I arrived. And I missed them all terribly as well." Alice laughed. Hatter poured Alice a cup of tea. "Alice? Do you want a scone with…." He was hit by a glob of cream thrown by the March Hare. "…cream?"

Alice picked up a scone from off the table and wiped the cream off of his face with a finger. Then promptly spread it onto the scone and took a bite. "Thank you Hatter."

"You are mostest welcome Alice." The Cheshire Cat rolled his eyes and then disappeared back to his chair. 'Humans.' He sniffed.

As Alice ate and drank her tea, the Hatter watched her out of the corner of his eye. He took in every detail of her; her golden hair, her place skin, the way her eyes lit up every time she caught him looking. Quickly he averted his eyes, as once again Alice had almost caught him. She had done so about twice so far, but hadn't said anything. Which was a relief to the Hatter, as he wouldn't have known what to say.

~**~

'_Why are you looking at me?'_

'_Because I…' he would trail of and blush._

'_Hatter?'_

_Quick as a flash he would leave his chair and press his lips to hers in a searing kiss._

'_Oh.' would be all she would be able to say before he claimed her lips again._

_~**~_

"Hatter?" Alice asked worriedly. He had spaced out and completely ignored the laughter as March was telling the story of how he had tricked the Hatter into wearing a teapot as a shoe once. Granted he had been half asleep at the time, but he had been tricked nonetheless.

"Mhmm?" Hatter's eyes came back into focus and they settled on her lovely face.

"Are you feeling alright today? You've been awfully quiet." Alice was observant when she so wished to be and she wanted to be right now. One of her most enthusiastic friends was not himself and she wanted to know the reason as to why.

"I am perfectly perfect Luv." It was the first time he had called Alice something like that and he was shocked. His eyes widened as Alice cocked an eyebrow at him. "That's exactly my point." Alice crossed her arms and continued to watch the madman. He shifted uncomfortably and then decided that now was probably a good time to tell her what he thought about her.

"Does the lady wish to go for a walk?" he rose from his seat and bowed before Alice, then offered her his arm with a grin on his face.

Alice blushed and accepted the arm offered to her, and together they set off down the path, to where, Alice wasn't sure.

"Where are they going?" March asked ten minutes after Alice and Hatter had left. He had seen them leave, but only now it registered.

"To sort things out." The cat stated simply before he took another sip of his tea, and threw a cupcake at the hare's head.

**Author's Note:**

**Ok. So there was no kiss this chapter, unless you want to count the one in the Hatter's mind.**

**Next chapter is between Alice and Hatter!**

**Also. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. It is amazing to see that I have so many followers.**

**Also, 100****th**** reviewer and the review that makes me smile the most, gets a special mention in the next chapter!**

**~Barn~**


	10. Together in a Clearing

**Author's Note:**

**My Gosh!**

**So many reviews!**

**I would just like to say thank you for getting me past the half way mark. **

**- Hatter says thank you too! -**

**That and I would also like to announce the winners of the special mention…**

**The 100****th**** review I believe goes to Spocklover2013… well done dear.**

**And because there were too many reviews that made me smile I had to go for the ones that made me roll on the floor in fits of hysterical laughter.**

**Ariacle and Ainnenoi Aurum, well done to you both!**

**Now I fear I'm rambling, so…**

**On with the story!**

**~**~**

"Hatter where are we going?" Alice laughed as the madman led her further away from the tea table and closer to the middle of nowhere. "You'll see." The Hatter grinned as though he was a cat that had just swallowed a bird. They continued to walk onwards, (or in the Hatter's case skip, hop, jump, and dance) until they emerged in a clearing with a log just visible over the tall grass. Alice headed over to the log in order to sit down for a minute or two, though she was fairly certain this was where the Hatter was taking her.

On her way, she chanced a glance back and was barely able to make out the March Hare and the Cheshire Cat. It was rather a hard thing to do as there were trees obscuring her view.

The Hatter took Alice's backward glance as an opportunity to surprise her and so took a deep breath before leaping in front of her. He refused to lose his muchness over something like this. Landing a few steps away from Alice, he figured she would turn around before walking into him. He was mistaken however, when Alice's nose made contact with his chest.

"Hat- ooof!" Alice came into contact with something solid and … clothed? Yes it was definitely clothed. It laughed too. Alice felt strong hands fold over her shoulders, and she took a step back to inspect and apologise to whomever she had abruptly walked into.

" I know I'm a good sort of fellow, but walking into me was unnecessary." The Hatter laughed and shook his head as Alice blushed. It was a very pretty blush in Hatter's opinion, and he didn't quite know why Alice didn't do it more often. He would have to make a habit of making her blush.

"Well… yes. You were right next to me a second ago!" Alice laughed at how childish she sounded. As if she had been caught doing something naughty and totally refusing to take the blame for whatever the outcome was.

"But that was a second ago my dear. And now after that second I'm now over here." The Hatter took two steps to the left and then proceeded to take another two. "And now I'm here. And now I'm here. And now here." If Alice didn't stop him soon, she would have to spend her entire night looking for the man. He was beginning to get further and further away. She didn't know that by taking those steps away from her, Hatter was preparing himself for what was to come.

"Hatter come back! I fear I can no longer see you!" Alice cried and feigned blindness by holding a hand just above her eyebrow. And it all happened quicker than Alice could have ever imagined. One moment he had been standing right there, a few hundred metres away, and the next… he was gone. In the blink of an eye. "Oh bother." She cursed as she tried to find a sign of some sort to the man's whereabouts. The grass was so tall; that even his was wasn't visible if he was sitting down somewhere.

"In five seconds you're going to spring up and tell her." Hatter mumbled to himself. He hadn't been able to pluck up the enough courage to tell Alice how he felt just yet, so resorted to a good old game of 'Hide and Seek'. He had made himself comfortable on the grassy ground, lying staring up at the pretty blue sky that reminded him so much of Alice. She would find him soon enough he reasoned. Why not make the best of it?

He tipped his hat a little to decrease the amount of sun in his eyes and then placed his arms under his head and waited. He was really rather good at playing games of 'Hide and Seek' and would often be unfound for hours. He heard the grass rustle from somewhere near by and could discern Alice's voice mumbling to herself. He smiled to himself. Yes he would be found sooner rather than later. Though Alice didn't know that.

"… And with such a big hat one would thin-" Alice's foot came into contact with a another something solid and this time she fell to the ground, though luckily he didn't dirty her dress as it wasn't muddy here. "So now you're falling for me?" Hatter chuckled from under his hat and Alice couldn't help but roll her eyes. Of course. She would find the Hatter by falling down. After all that is how she had found him all those many years ago. She had fallen down a rabbit hole and made many new strange and wonderful friends.

"One can't control who they fall for." Alice retorted. "It may have just as well been the Bandersnatch lying there. At least I would have seen him before I fell." The first part of her sentence gave the Hatter a little hope. He pulled himself into a sitting position, choosing to sit cross-legged because he then wouldn't be able to trip Alice over. She had after all, tripped over his foot. His face was completely serious as he voiced his next statement. "Alice, may I ask you something?"

Alice was rather shocked that he would ask a question about asking a question before asking the question he intended to ask. Normally he would just come out and say it. "You may dear Hatter." She smiled kindly and silently encouraged him. That look of an internal battle was once again on his face. "What is your question?"

The internal battle was now raging inside of dear Hatter's mind. He wanted to desperately tell his Alice how he felt, though he was afraid that she would laugh and disappear the moment he did so. "I… Would you…" Alice's perfect blonde eyebrow was raised silently as she waited for him to form his question. It was a lot harder than it had first appeared. "Would I…" his muchness was beginning to fail him now, and he didn't particularly want to lose it. A Hatter without his muchness was like an Alice without hers. Maddening.

"I would…" muchness be damned. He wasn't going to be able to say it just yet.

"Yes Hatter?" Alice patiently tried to coax out his question.

"I would very much like to… make you a gift. Can I?" This was not the question Alice had been expecting and was a little disappointed. But not as disappointed as the Hatter.

As soon as the reply, 'Of course. If you really want to.' reached his ears, he buried his face in his hands in despair. "Why Hatter, what's the matter?" Alice reached out with a hand and placed it on his shoulder in an effort to try and give him comfort. She wanted to cradle him in her arms and sooth whatever pain he had away, but knew that he would think it as nothing more than a friendship thing when she wouldn't. It would mean so much more to her.

"I've lost my muchness!" He wailed, tears not quite forming, but knew if left to stew on it, would.

"Your muchness?" Alice couldn't quite tell in what way he had lost it, so decided to humour him and see if he eventually explained how he had lost it. No such luck.

"Yes!" a dry sob erupted from his throat. And to tell you the truth, Hatter didn't know whether it was because he hadn't told Alice about his feelings, or if it was because he had lost his muchness.

"Well… can't you get it back?" Alice was grasping at straws here. She had never had to deal with a crying Hatter before. It was more frightening than when he got stuck in one of his fits.

"Get it back?" The Hatter had stopped sobbing for now. "How can I get it back?"

"Well I got my muchness back." Alice said.

"But you are an Alice!" his head once again dropped back to his hands.

"And you are a Hatter who helped me get it back. I'm the Alice who shall help you." Alice's tone made her declaration sound final. Hatter's head left his hands and just looked at Alice. She was going to help him get his muchness back? Did she know what that entailed? Of course she didn't.

"Are you sure you wish to help?" Hatter couldn't quite believe she would willingly do that.

Alice nodded her head, unaware of what was to follow.

Hatter shuffled forward on his knees towards Alice, who was sitting and patiently waiting for him to give her details on some major adventure that would ensure the obtainment of his muchness. Hatter did no such thing; he just stared at her, for which she stared back.

"No I can't" He shook his head and sat down next to Alice, not looking at her. He knew of only one way to get his muchness back, and he knew he couldn't take advantage of Alice like that. Even if she had volunteered. Maybe in a couple of days or so, he would be able to try again.

He shot a sideways glance at her face. She was terribly pretty; the most beautiful person Hatter and ever seen and he was certain that he loved her. Her golden hair cascaded down her back in loose curls, with a couple framing her face. How he wanted to gently sweep an unruly curl behind her ear. Her eyes were staring out at something that he couldn't see, not that he was trying to, and had a faraway look in them. What was she thinking? As she gazed her lips formed into a smile. Those same lips were the Hatter's downfall. He wanted to run his finger over them and see if they felt as smooth as they looked, but he wouldn't dare, not just yet. Though he really, really, really did want to kiss her. Right now. And the entire fault lay with those lips that taunted him with that smile.

Without even realising it, he had crept forward ever so slowly, until he was nearly nose to cheek with her.

"What are you wondering?" Alice turned to answer Hatter, but never got the chance to. As soon as her head was turned, lips brushed gently against her own pink ones. Softly at first but then they kiss her again and this time it was a little harder and filled with emotion. A hand came tangled itself in her hair, though she didn't mind one bit. She was too preoccupied with the lips of the Hatter, who was a rather skilful kisser in her opinion.

The Hatter however, was unaware of his skilful kissing though, as his brain had completely shut off. He was just living in the moment for now. A hand trailed down to Alice's waist and pulled her closer to him. She melted into his touch and Hatter couldn't remember the last time something this fantastic had happened. Then he realised who he was kissing. That and he was running out of air.

Abruptly he pulled back, releasing Alice at once, his eyes as wide as saucers and his pale face a rosy pink. "I- I'm sorry… I shouldn't…. There's tea to make." And he quickly scurried to his feet and hurried off, leaving a confused Alice sitting in the grass.

A confused Alice who quickly chased after the quickly receding back of the Hatter. "Hatter! Wait!" Alice cried, trying to catch up to him. He only seemed to quicken his pace as he headed back towards the tea table.

It was Alice's cry that alerted the Cheshire Cat and the March Hare that both humans were on their way back. Though Cheshire thought that they would have been walking together, not seeing the Hatter practically run away from the blonde.

"Did you sort things out?" The cat purred as the Hatter approached the table and began to stride right past it, but not without picking up a teacup first. "Nope." He squeaked. If Hatter had been more himself, he would have marvelled at the fact that he could make his voice that high, but alas he was not and so no such thinking of the sort was to take place.

"Oh?" Cheshire would have stuck his paws where they didn't belong if the Hatter had not bolted through the door and out of sight.

Turning, Chessur saw why. Alice had arrived.

"Hatter! Hatter!" Alice was panting as she reached the table where the cat and the hare sat. "Did he come this way?" March pointed at the door and Alice raced forward. She wanted to know why the Hatter had done what he had. Not because she was angry, but simply curious. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you Alice." Chessur warned. Alice turned to face the cat, but saw nothing. Suddenly he appeared around her shoulders.

"The last time he ran from the tea table, he locked himself in his room for hours." He explained. Alice explained that she needed to see him right now, but the cat and the hare just shook their heads, telling her it wasn't wise. "He needs time." Chessur said. "Just give him some time."

Defeated, Alice sat at the tea table. She thought that after all that had happened in the clearing, she could really do with a drink.

"I wish to make you a gift! Way to go Hatter…" He had locked himself in his room and was currently pacing it back and forth, throwing his arms up in frustration every now and then. "And then… that!" He couldn't believe he had kissed her without her permission! Hatter was a polite person and would have only kissed her had she been willing. He didn't bother to think about the way she had reacted though, as he was too mortified at the possibility that he may have just botched up the best thing that had happened to him since his top hat.

He groaned and flung himself onto the bed, in a similar fashion as to what a dramatic teenager would do. Rubbing his hands over his face for a little while, trying to scrub of what traces of Alice were left there. It wasn't that he hadn't enjoyed the kiss, he had immensely, it was the fact that it may break up a perfectly great friendship that made him scrub his face so. As if he could pretend it never happened. Only he couldn't pretend it had never happened as he had asked Alice if he could make her a gift.

The Hatter moaned loudly. He now had to make a gift for Alice.

Sighing, he pulled himself off the bed and looked around for something to give her. He couldn't find anything but his clothing and a hat here and there, that he wouldn't give her as he thought they didn't sum her up well enough, but after some deep thought finally came up with an idea. It was a marvellous, mad, idea. But it was an idea nonetheless.

For the next few hours, Hatter set about making his gift, whilst getting his thoughts and more pronounced emotion in line.

**Author's Note #2:**

**Ta Dah!**

**Finally we get a kiss… a real kiss too!**

**I was going to make you wait another chapter, but thought that too cruel as I myself have been dying to write in a kiss for you all. And I have!**

**:D**

**enjoy!**


	11. Missing

If you were to sit at the tea table outside with the Cheshire Cat, Alice and the March Hare, you would have noticed how awfully quiet each one of them seemed. March hadn't thrown anything in the last hour and a bit. Chessur hadn't evaporated and reappeared, and Alice certainly hadn't tried to break her way into Hatter's room. Instead they had sipped their tea in silence, occasionally hearing a cry of frustration or a grating sound, that sounded as if something heavy were being dragged around, coming from the Hatter's room upstairs.

Once the latest cry had sounded, Cheshire turned to Alice, "Do you think it wise to check on him? Make sure he hasn't harmed himself?"

Alice nodded her head vigorously. "Yes please. And if he has hurt himself, let me know ok?" The cat bowed his head before disappearing inside.

Five seconds later however, he returned. "He threw hats! At me!" Chessur was appalled that the Hatter would do such a thing. Curse him, yes. But to actually try and throw things? "So is it safe to go up?" Alice asked hopefully. Cheshire shook his head. "Not if you value your life." Was her response.

"Why didn't you keep one?" March asked. Chessur was always after Hatter's hat.

"I didn't like any."

The Hatter, who had in actual fact thrown several hats at the Cheshire Cat, was currently hunched over his mattress. He had burnt his fingers and was sucking on them furiously. He would have burnt them again had he been holding the hot metal when Chessur appeared, frightening the living daylights out of him. "Sodding cat." He grumbled as he applied glue to his gift.

He had decided it best to make two, as he wasn't sure if the first was going to be accepted. The second, he knew for certain, would be welcomed.

His first gift was finished and with a tremendous effort, he dragged it all the way back to Alice's room, where it was going to stay. Hatter then returned to his room perspiring, as he set about finishing off his second gift.

It was pretty much finished; it just needed a centrepiece and a clasp. Searching his through his belongings, he found the perfect centrepiece, though no clasp. For which he was quite disappointed. He always had one lying around when he wasn't looking for one.

Reasoning that he would be able to finish it off tomorrow as it was getting late now, Hatter carefully placed it into a draw of the dresser where all of his hatpins were. He was about to shut the draw when he noticed a very shiny looking rock amongst lying with his hatpin collection. 'Oooh. Shiny' Hatter thought as he picked it up and examined it, and then decided that it would make a better centrepiece than the small bow he had picked out. He placed the stone in the draw with his gift and quietly shut it.

He took a deep breath as he then began to descend the stairs and once again face all of his friends that were no doubt still at the tea table.

"Ah, Hatter." Cheshire acknowledged the return of the man with a grin. Alice jerked awake. It had begun to get dark and the Hatter had still not made an appearance since shutting himself away. Alice herself had dozed off after a while, since she didn't know what to do with herself. "Chessur." Hatter nodded to the cat and dodged a cake thrown by an upset March Hare, who had wanted to go to bed a while ago, but was afraid to go into the house. He had said that the last time he had tried, he had come across the Hatter in a foul mood, and had never tried again. He had been that terrified of his friend! "March." Hatter nodded again and then turned towards a curious looking Alice. "Alice." He said in a small voice, never once meeting her eyes. She inwardly sighed. It was obviously going to take a little longer for him to come to term with the fact that he hadn't in fact done anything wrong. "Hatter." Alice responded in kind, though her voice hadn't sounded as small as the man's. For which she was quite proud of.

"I fear it is getting quite late and that I have kept you out of the house." He apologised to them all and assured them they could go to sleep now. "Oh no, by all means. If you have more sulking to do, we'll gladly stay out here." The Cheshire grinned. The Hatter assured him, and in turn the rest of them, that they were now able to go to bed and to sleep, as he had finished his sulk. "Good." Sniffed the hare. "I need a rest." And with that, he said goodnight and bounded indoors before the Hatter changed his mind. Chessur also bid his farewells, and disappeared with the light mist that was starting to roll in towards the table. Which only left Hatter and Alice remaining.

"Hatter I-" Alice began but he cut her off, not sure if he really wanted to hear what she had to say just yet. "I made you a gift." He grinned, trying to put the past behind him as much as he could. His smile threw Alice. "You did? Was that what you were doing this whole time?" The Hatter nodded.

"Come. I'll show you m'lady." He grabbed her hand and led her towards the house. Trying his best not to pay too much attention to the butterflies that had awoken in his stomach.

Alice was led up to a spare room, and at the last moment, the Hatter covered her eyes. "Now take three steps forward." He instructed; she did so. "Ta dah!" he exclaimed as she saw what lay before her. A bed. When Alice thought about it, this had been the room she had discovered the other day that had all those bits of wood and that mattress lying in it. "You made this?" Alice ran her hand across the bedspread as if it were all just a dream. That it would vanish as soon as she touched it. "I did." Hatter puffed out his chest. "Got the scars to prove it." He held up his fingers and enable Alice to see the injuries he had sustained. Though not all of them had come from making the bed. Actually, majority of them hadn't come from making the bed. "Oh Hatter! Let me see." Alice took a step forward to inspect his hands, but he drew away. "S'its ok Alice. It doesn't hurt." He assured her. He didn't want her to touch her right now. "Ok. If you're sure you're alright." He nodded his head. Alice knew he was putting on a happy face, and didn't like it one bit, but decided to play along with it. She didn't want to hurt him anymore than he was hurting himself.

"This is your bed now Alice. You can sleep in it whenever you so choose." Hatter said. He decided against telling her that he had in fact replaced her broken mattress with his perfectly fine one. He had constructed himself a mattress made up of pillows and cushions. It would suffice for a while. "Thank you Hatter. But it wasn't necessary. I could have slept on the couch." Alice frowned. Hatter shook his head. He had taken the cushions from the couch, so that left little comfort there. "No one should ever sleep on that couch. At least, no one your size." He smiled kindly. Alice could tell he was trying hard to be his 'normal' mad self. She could see an internal battle taking place. One second his eyes would be their bright green colour, the next they would be an indigo or magenta colour. "Thank you Hatter. It was very kind." She approached him with caution, not sure as to how he would take what she would do. She stretched up on her tippee toes and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek. "W-well goodnight Alice." He stuttered and then he was gone. Making a hasty exit, before his emotions overflowed.

Alice sighed. Yes it was going to take a little more time to convince the Hatter otherwise. But seeing as time didn't exist in Wonderland, she was going to need a miracle.

As she got ready for bed, her mind whirred through all of the infinite possibilities. She pulled the covers up to her chin and marvelled at how well Hatter had made the bed. It was definitely comfortable.

Hatter had drunk several cups of tea and eaten a scone before he had set off for bed. He was glad that Alice had accepted the bed, and that he didn't have to listen to anything about 'feelings' for the rest of the night. He knew that if he had stayed a second longer in Alice's room, it would have come down to that and he wasn't sure how he would have handled it. To be perfectly honest, he wasn't sure if he could handle himself imagining handling himself with the 'feelings' that he felt. Not around Alice at the moment anyway.

He had placed his top hat on the chair across from his bed, within reach if he needed it in a hurry, and lay his head down on his pillow. The mattress wasn't as comfy as his one he had just donated to Alice's bed, but it would suffice for a night or two. He closed his eyes and dreamt of tea parties and scones. And… of a certain blonde in a green and purple dress.

He had only been asleep for what felt like mere moments when the March Hare came hurtling into his room. "Hatter! Hatter! Wake up Hatter!" Groggily, the man obliged.

"Wha-? What's the matter old friend?" the hare never bothered to wake him up in the middle of the night. It must be a very important matter then. And indeed it was. "Is Alice in here?" March grabbed his ears and wrapped them around each other under his chin. His right eye twitching violently in the dark. "No? She's down the hall?" The Hatter was confused as to why the hare would ask such a silly question. Surely he could see that she was asleep in her bed. "Where else would she be?"

March began jumping up and down like a madman. "I don't know! I don't know!" he began to ramble and Hatter found it quite hard to understand the creature, even though he was a fluent rambler himself. "March! March!" he was finally able to catch his friend's attention. "Take a breath then start again." The hare did so, though it didn't make much difference. "Aliceismissingandshe'snotinherbed." He took a large intake of air as it had taken his whole lung capacity to get out that one sentence. Still the Hatter was puzzled. His brain addled with sleep. "What? Say it slower." He really wished he hadn't asked the hare to repeat himself. "Alice…is…missing…and…she's…not…in…her…bed." The hare said it slowly, as if he were speaking to a child. The Hatter couldn't believe his ears, and couldn't help but saying 'what?' again.

"ALICE IS MISSING!" the March Hare bellowed. The Hatter's stomach turned to lead. 'Oh no!' his mind screamed. Alice couldn't be missing. He loved Alice, why would she be missing?

Throwing blankets and pillows aside, the madman grabbed his hat, thrust it on top of his head, pulled his shoes on and ran for the door. But not without first checking to see if his friend was actually telling the truth. He was. "ALICE!" The Hatter cried as he sprinted down the stairs and out the front door.


	12. Once Was Lost, But Now Was Found

Away from the house, in the clearing where she had previously been with the Hatter, Alice smiled to herself as she sat on the chair she had dragged from the tea table. Even from here, she had been able to hear the entire conversation between the March Hare and the Hatter.

Now you might be asking yourself why Alice was sitting out in the open on a tea table chair in the middle of the night? Well the answer was that Alice couldn't sleep; even though the bed Hatter had made was one of the most comfortable beds she had ever slept on, something was just not right and she wasn't able to shut her mind off and sleep peacefully. So being the well mannered woman that she was, she had left a note for the two madmen she was staying with, detailing that she had decided to stargaze out in the clearing. It was safe to do so, as Chessur had informed her beforehand, whilst waiting for the Hatter to return to his 'normal' self, that the White Queen's soldiers had captured the rebel cards.

At first she had just gazed up at the many stars and made a wish every now and then when she saw one shooting across the sky, then her mind had turned towards other thoughts. She had begun to contemplate whether or not she should return to her world. This was not something that Alice had wanted to think about, but it required thinking and so Alice would much rather get the thinking over and done with. After much thought, Alice still couldn't make up her mind. Though she had reasoned that she wouldn't leave until she had sorted out that mad Hatter friend of hers. That was, if she could.

With her required thinking over, Alice just sat there staring upwards and allowed her mind to wander as the long grass surrounding her swayed gently in a light breeze that had picked up.

Hatter meanwhile, had not bothered to look at the table where Alice's note lay. He was much too interested in finding the missing blonde. With his heart beating unusually fast, he came to a halt at the tea table in order to search for any clues to her whereabouts. A chair was missing from the table, but Hatter cared not for missing chairs. "ALICE!" he called, hoping that she wouldn't be too far away and would be able to call back to him. He listened hard for a moment, but there was no reply. 'Drumsticks!' he muttered to himself, not at all pleased that the love of his life was missing. March came bounding out of the house then, and found his mad friend in a state of silent panic and despair. Hatter was standing stock still staring at nothing, his hands wrapped around himself as he tried to think up solutions to finding Alice. March glanced around the table and noticed the missing chair. He also noticed the upturned earth that lay around that area. It looked as though something had been dragged from there. "Look!" he pointed and Hatter looked to find nothing but dirt. "That's not very helpful. Alice is missing, and all you care about is the dirt!" March shook his head and pointed again. "Look closer." He instructed and the Hatter did so; bending so close to the dirt in fact, that if the March Hare felt so obliged, he could plant his friend's face into the dirt itself. "It's nothing but upturned earth." The Hatter stated, and then smacked his head as realisation hit him. "She was dragged off!" his eyes changed to that yellow colour which indicated when he was angry. He wasn't just angry though, he was furious. Furious that someone in Underland would have the cheek to drag his Alice away. "Stay here in case she returns." Hatter ordered March before following the drag marks at a run.

"ALICE!" her head whipped around towards the sound, but she wasn't sure if she was imagining things or not. The call had been so faint, that Alice was sure it was just her mind making up fantasies. "I must be going mad." Alice laughed to herself. "Which wouldn't be too hard because of the company I choose to keep." She leaned back into the chair and made herself comfortable. She would head back towards the house in a minute or two. But before those few minutes were up, she wanted to just look at the sky.

A slight breeze stirred again, and the grass swayed along with it, as though it were dancing to its very own tune. Which in every possibility, it could have been. Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath, only to snap them open again when she heard her name being called. 'That wasn't my imagination this time.' Alice peered around the chair, trying to see where the voice had come from. So far she could see nothing. 'Let's humour my madness.' Alice grinned to herself before calling out, "Yes?" she couldn't help but laugh at how silly she currently felt. Since when did Alice Kingsley have shouting matches with invisible beings?

"ALICE!" Hatter shouted out for a third time. He felt as if he was never going to find her, as if it were like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Which if he had bothered to ponder on it at all, he would have found that it was very much like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Underland was a very big place after all, and Alice was so small in comparison.

Hatter strained his ears to catch any sort of sound. He was about to call again when he heard a 'Yes?' sound from somewhere towards the clearing. Not bothering to follow the tacks any longer, he began to tear through the trees in a mad effort to find her.

After a few minutes of flat out sprinting, he cleared the trees and entered the clearing. There the moon most graciously outlined the silhouette of a chair. It was the one from the tea table. But it wasn't the chair that caught the Hatter's attention. It was the material hanging over the side of the chair and a something else, which he deemed was a foot.

Taking slow, precise steps into the clearing, just in case whatever it was in front of him was dangerous, he advanced. "Alice?" He asked quietly. The material rustled and the foot thing moved; a head of blonde hair that shone radiant silver in the moonlight replaced them. The face that was just under the head of hair was painted with a curious expression. Blue eyes met the now green ones and Hatter breathed a sigh of relief.

Alice, who had been thinking about nothing particular, heard her name being called once again. Shifting her skirts, she looked over the side of the chair and her breathing hitched. She would have thought it was one of her fantasies had he not been so realistic. Her mind could never quite capture the Hatter. He needed to be seen, not to be imagined. And in the moonlight he was quite a sight. His hair was a fiery red, his face so pale; his eyes seemed to glow in the dark. She smiled at him, "Hello Hatter."

She was shocked at how fast he moved. He practically flew towards her.

Within seconds she was lifted off of the chair and crushed against his chest, finding it very hard to breathe, but not wanting it to end. She was enjoying it too much; as was the Hatter. Right now he didn't give a damn about manners and politeness as he continued to crush Alice in a hug so tight, it must have breaking her ribs.

Eventually, he let her go and they stood face to face for a while, just staring as if they weren't entirely sure if they were imagining the other. 'Well, this isn't how I planned for the day to start." Alice broke the silence. Hatter laughed. It wasn't one of his maniacal laughs; those were for when he found something extremely funny. This one was more of a sane type of laugh. "Do tell dear Alice."

"Well for one, I never thought I'd start the day this early." She carefully leant back against the edge of the chair. "Me either." the Hatter confessed.

"I also didn't think I would be seeing you today either." Alice admitted. She had no intention of hurting him, it was only in jest, well, partly, but by the way he hung his head to hide his face made her think she had done something terrible. "Hatter?" his head slowly raised and Alice was able to see silent tear tracks on his face. Instantly she stepped forward and placed a hand on his cheek. "Hatter what's wrong dear friend?"

"W-when I…" he choked out. "I thought I lost you." He spoke quietly. Alice wiped his tears away. "Well you found me. Did you not?" He nodded. "And just like you found me, you will find your muchness." There, Alice had bought it up. It had annoyed her the entire time she had tried to sleep. It was also part of the reason as to why she had come outside. "You really think so Alice?" Hatter doubted himself.

"I know so." Alice replied and in that moment of time, Hatter believed her. He also believed that he would be able to get his muchness back right now. The fiasco he had just gone through had been the last little push he needed.

"Ok." He nodded. "I could get it back now you know?"

"Oh?" again, he nodded. "And how is that?" Hatter only now realised how close they were. He also realised that Alice must have felt something the last time he had kissed her, as while he tried to sleep, he had remembered she had kissed him back.

"Like this." Gently he pressed his lips to hers. "I love you Alice Kingsley." He whispered against her ear. Alice shivered in delight. She hadn't been expecting that as his way of getting his muchness back, but it was pleasant nonetheless. Hatter withdrew and looked her squarely in the face. "And I, dear Hatter, believe I love you too." She had realised it when she had left Wonderland for the second time. That was why she had turned down Hamish. And it was also why she had plunged down the rabbit hole for a third time.

A grin that would put the Cheshire Cat to shame crept across the Hatter's face. His heart pounded in his chest. Once again his lips met hers, but this time Alice sighed, opening her mouth slightly, which gave Hatter the opportunity to explore her mouth. She tasted 'sweet, but not overly sweet' according to him. It was just how he liked his tea. But Alice was nothing compared to tea. She was far better. His hands found purchase on her hips and he drew her closer to him. Alice's hands made their way around his neck and together they stood, the moon their only witness.

Eventually they had to pull apart from each other, as it was beginning to get a little too cold to be standing outside. Hatter carried the chair home with an especially content Alice by his side. He placed the chair at its rightful spot at the tea table, took Alice's hand and together, they headed indoors to find that the March Hare had fallen asleep on the kitchen bench.

Hatter was going to wake him up, but Alice stopped him. "Let him rest." Alice had said and Hatter just nodded, leading her up to her room. "Goodnight Hatter." Alice placed a kiss on his cheek. Hatter blushed. "I guess now would be a good time to tell you I have no bed." Alice's eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

"Where did it go?"

"Into your room" He gave a sheepish grin. "Well the mattress did anyway."

"So what are you sleeping on?" Alice couldn't believe it. No wonder the bed had been so comfortable. "Pillows and cushions." Another sheepish grin was given.

"Well come on then. I will not be held responsible for a tired and cranky Hatter." Alice grabbed his hand and pulled him inside the room. He tried to explain that Hatter's were never tired and cranky and that he had slept on much worse at the Red Queen's castle, but she would have none of it. She threw back the covers of the bed and crawled in, patting the space beside her. Hatter fidgeted with his hat, but eventually conceded; placing his hat on the chair not far from the bed, in case he needed it.

"Alice?" Hatter couldn't tell if she were awake or asleep. They had after all, been lying there for over an hour. 'The sun will be up soon.' The Hatter mused.

"Mhm?" Alice was sleepy, but she couldn't deny the man, especially when he sounded so unsure as he just had. "Could I… I mean, may I… hold you?" A dark red blush grew on his face and he was very glad that it was dark in the room. "And why is that Hatter?" Alice asked, rolling over to face him. She couldn't see the blush, but she could tell that he was looking at her. His green eyes glowed. "So that I know that this is real and not some mad dream of mine." He smiled apologetically.

"This isn't a mad dream of yours Hatter. But you can if you so wish." She wasn't going to object to sleeping in his embrace. She had done it once before. Though she hadn't actually meant to do it.

She shuffled towards him and he held his arms out for her. As soon as she was comfortable, lying her cheek against his chest, he encircled her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. "Sweet dreaming Alice." He whispered. Alice sighed, but didn't respond. She had already fallen back to sleep.

The Hatter fell asleep, still with Alice in his arms, soon after that; with a grin so big, the Cheshire Cat would have been extremely jealous.

**Author's Note:**

**Awww…. **

**I was going to make Hatter act weird for a few more chapters before this one, but I found that I just couldn't write it. **

**That and you may have all screamed "OFF WITH HER HEAD!!" towards me.**

**So I decided to take the safe route.**

**Also, I am sad to inform you that I may not be able to update the story for a day or two, as I have to work tomorrow and do some homework…**

**Damn reality!**

**But I promise if I have time, I shall try my hardest to update for you.**

**Sincerest apologies, **

**~Barn~**


	13. The Cleverness of March

Now at first glance, one would say that the March Hare was quite mad. Madder than the Hatter some would say. And that was just how he liked it. For in fact he only appeared to be mad, for he was so smart, it bordered on insanity. He just enjoyed the insanity aspect of his cleverness much more than the actual cleverness itself. He found that being clever was actually quite boring. At least if you were mad, there was always something interesting going on.

As he crept out of his room in order to have an early morning tea, he smiled to himself as he thought up his next scheme to bring the Hatter and Alice together. He had already destroyed her bed and passed it off as a moment of insanity, claiming it needed 'wearing in' he had also made sure that the note Alice had left was never found. Yes, he had found it, but thought it much too perfect an opportunity to pass up. The Cheshire Cat was also in on the plan as he had appeared once whilst March had been plotting. His job was to plant seeds in the Hatter's head, and eventually Alice's, in the hopes that they would wake up to their feelings, leaving the cat and the hare in peace. So far this had not happened.

March was about to tiptoe down the stairs when he noticed that the door to the Hatter's room was wide open and the one to Alice's was shut. It was nothing out of the ordinary for Alice's door to be shut, as Hatter had tried to hide the remains of the bed. But Hatter's door open? He slept with his door shut. Always.

March headed back towards the door to inspect, and was pleasantly surprised when he found his orange haired friend was not in the vicinity of the room. 'That must mean…' March glanced back at Alice's door. 'No!... really?' curiosity got the best of the hare and he gently pushed the door to Alice's room open. He eyes widened in surprise. 'HE DID!'

The Hatter lay there breathing evenly and deeply while sleeping with a head of blonde hair positioned on his chest. Alice too, was asleep.

The March Hare was so happy in that instant that he wished he could futterwacken as well as the Hatter could. 'Oh Chessur will be ever so pleased!' he quietly shut the door and bounced down the hallway and down the stairs to the teapot.

He wouldn't be able to go back to sleep now.

"Really?" The grin never left the cat's face. March nodded enthusiastically. He had drank twenty cups of tea before the Cheshire Cat had shown up. He was now practically spasm-ing in his seat with excitement. "Well I say, the Hatter's finally got it." Chessur was of course referring to the Hatter's roundabout way of realising he was in love with the champion of Underland. "Hooray for Hatter!" March threw his arms up in the air and tumbled off the chair backwards. Chessur rolled his eyes. "Indeed. Now we get to put up with the vomit- inducing love struck pair." The hare's smile faltered slightly as he realised the implications. "We hide." He said eventually. "You don't come round for tea later, and I'll pretend to be ill."

"Who's ill?" An extremely content madman, still clad in pyjamas, asked from the last stair. He hadn't heard the conversation before then, only the last little bit.

"Not ill. Bill." The cat quickly covered up. "Bill the lizard has requested a search party to find the missing Underland gem. March and I volunteered." He lied smoothly. March nodding his head, not quite trusting what he would say. Hatter didn't accept it at first.

"But you two never talk to Bill?"

"Well we volunteered nonetheless to keep out of your hair today!" the March Hare cried, then clamped a paw over his mouth as he realised he had said something terrible. Chessur sent a menacing glare towards him, though his smile never left his face.

"Why?" Hatter was a little confused to say the least. Since when did they get in his hair?

The Cheshire Cat sighed, "To give you time with Alice." He stated simply. Recognition sparked across the Hatter's face and a quick moment of gratefulness swept across his features, before he replaced them with his trademark grin and walked past them to pick up a teacup. "I have no idea of what you speak of."

"Of course you don't old friend. Of course you don't." The cat and hare chorused.

The March Hare and the Cheshire Cat left shortly after the Hatter had had his fifth cup of tea. He decided not to line them up like shots today, but to enjoy and savour them at the tea table, as one would with a fine wine. All the colours around him seemed just that extra bit brighter to him. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he had a fair idea that it had something to do with his Alice still sleeping upstairs. He had decided to let her lie in this morning, as it would give him some time to think to himself. 'I could finish that present' he mused to himself. Alice was his now, which meant he could shower her with gifts if he so chose.

"Cheerio Hatter!" March waved as he bounded down the path and out the gate.

"Fairfarren March!" he waved back, and continued to do so until his head felt just that little bit lighter. He looked up just in time to see his hat floating in mid air.

Slamming the teacup down on the table he shot precariously on his chair and leapt for the hat, cursing as he flew through the air. The hat dropped into his hands and Chessur appeared next to March, who had been watching the hat and it's owner. "Goodbye old friend." The cat laughed.

"Good bloody riddance!" the Hatter cradled his hat in his arms as if it was precious as a child. As soon as the pair were out of sight, Hatter placed his hat atop his head and finished off his teacups. 'Yes I think I shall be creative today. Not that I am not a creative person, but I shall….' He trailed off in thought; rambling to himself about how creative he was and what he had made that was creative. He then tried to 'out creative' himself which hadn't ended very well. Either way, he won and lost. 'I'll just go make her gift.' He thought finally, and heaved himself out of the chair. With a bounce in his step, he entered the house and quietly crept upstairs to his room where his drawer full of goodies resided.

He finished the gift about a half hour later. Placing it around a mannequin's neck to cool, he stood back and admired his handiwork. It was simple, yet elegant if he said so himself. Alice was a person who liked her clothes to be simplistic, well almost always, and so he had made her a necklace with that idea in mind. It was a beautiful silver chain, polished so it sparkled in whatever light the wearer was currently in, but it wasn't the chain that captured the observer's attention. It was the gem in the middle of the chain. It was shaped like a heart and the colours would change whenever the gem felt like it. He had seen it flash a deep blue whilst working on it and thought to himself, 'it looks like the heart of the ocean. Well the colour does anyway.' He wasn't entirely sure of what the heart of the ocean actually looked like, but guessed it was fairly close to what he was working with.

He could hear someone shuffling around outside his door and as there was only one other in the house, deemed it to be Alice. Quickly, he picked up the necklace, being mindful that it was still warm to touch, he had soldered it after all, and placed it gently back into his drawer. With a flick of his wrist, the drawer was shut and just in time too!

"Hatter? Are you in there?" A not quite with it Alice queried.

"Yes! Yes! I'm here!" Hatter dashed over to the door and opened it to reveal an Alice rubbing her eyes. "Did you sleep well dear Alice?" she smiled.

"I recall my pillow breathing at some point during the night, but apart from that my sleep was phenomenal."

Hatter sauntered forward and wrapped his arms around her middle, glad she didn't object to it. "Good morning Alice." He placed a chaste kiss on the top of her head.

"Good morning Hatter." Alice leant into the madman's chest.

"Now! How bout some tea? Nothing like a good spot of tea to open the peepers and get you going!" Hatter took a step back to observe his Alice as he rubbed his hands together with glee. It had been a while since his last cup. And this time he would get to share his tea with Alice. Not that mangy cat and March.

"Tea would be lovely."

"Super-dee-licious!" he grabbed Alice's hand and dragged her out to the tea table. Neither paying any mind to the nightdress, that Hatter had made Alice, or pyjamas they sported.

**Author's Note:**

**Ta Dah!**

**I updated as soon as reality would allow me.**

**I really hate homework you know? It is quite bothersome, but shouldn't be left to the last minute, or else it becomes even more bothersome than before.**

**Oh!**

**And just to clarify the necklace for you:**

**I did indeed add in the information you need if you want to google it up.**

**Person who guesses the right information gets a cookie and a hat! (Metaphorically speaking)**


	14. An Old Foe Returns

**Author's Note:**

**Well, I'm back!**

**I hope you all found the last chapter to your pleasing. I really wanted to let you all in on what March and Chessur had done.**

**Now ridiculously large hats and cookies go to all the readers who guessed the necklace as the 'Heart of the Ocean' from Titanic. A very pretty necklace indeed.**

**Also, chapters may take a little longer to update now as I have finally convinced myself to look through and read my work for errors before uploading. (Thank you Twilight Goddess for pointing out the 'draw' fiasco. A dancing Hatter goes to you!)**

**Now without any further ado!**

**~**~**

"Do you like your tea?" Hatter asked from over the rim of his own teacup. He had made Alice his 'very own recipe' tea and was anxiously awaiting the result. Hopefully it didn't involve Alice passing out like his dear friend March had. "It tastes like peppermint and… cinnamon?" Alice couldn't quite guess the last ingredient that she could taste. But it was rather good tea. Hatter nodded joyously. "Oh good! No fainting like March." Alice had been informed that the Hatter liked to experiment with his teas, and that the poor hare had suffered a fainting spell or two because of it. "Perhaps he just doesn't like peppermint?"

"Perhaps." Both had their feet propped up on the tea table and neither one really minded that they were only clad in pyjamas. That was until a gentle breeze blew Alice's nightdress up around her knees.

With her face flushed a bright red, Alice speedily adjusted her clothing as the Hatter gaped at her calf, that was quickly disappearing under nightdress material. Her skin was so pale, though not pale like his was. It was a beautiful pale colour skin and he couldn't help the little fantasies that whizzed through his mind. 'And the wind is to thank.' Hatter sighed dreamily in his head. He had never seen Alice's legs before. They were always hidden under something.

"Well I think it time I changed into something more suitable." Alice excused herself from the table and hurried indoors; not only to change but also to get control of the hideous blush she was sporting.

Hatter sighed audibly this time; he was going to change that girl's view on life one way or another. But how to do it without her noticing instantly?

Hatter entered the house, as he too, felt that a change of clothes was in order.

"Alice. Do you wish to walk?" Hatter held his hand out to the blonde and she took it with a smile. "Where to?" Hatter grinned mischievously.

"Haven't the slightest clue." Alice raised an eyebrow.

"No clue?"

"No clue about what?"

"Never mind Hatter." He shrugged and together they made their way out into the sun. It was a lovely day and he could think of nothing better than spending it with Alice.

They walked aimlessly together, talking about everything and nothing all at once. To someone like you or I, it would have been quite hard to keep track of the conversation, as Hatter switched topics so abruptly, but to Alice it was normal. She had always seemed to keep up with him. After a while, she looked at her surroundings and found that they had once again found themselves in the clearing near home.

"… and go peek?" Hatter was jumping around in front of her excitedly.

"I'm sorry, what?" Alice laughed as he sighed dramatically and placed both hands on her shoulders, as if he was trying to stop her from jumping around. "Hide and go peek." He said again. "You hide. I'll go peek." A hand came to his face and obscured his view of Alice. Quickly looking around for a decent hiding place, Alice scurried off to a nearby tree and sat down next to it. The grass was long enough to hide her and her blue dress, which someone, she suspected the Hatter, had washed.

"Oh Alice!" Hatter called after five seconds of searching. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" he was attempting to lure her out, he couldn't see her anywhere and didn't really fancy looking for her amongst all the grass. 'Could've asked to play somewhere else Hatter' he grumbled to himself as he began to search for his Alice once again. No response came. 'Darn it!' he kicked out at a small stone that lay in his path and it rocketed off towards more grass.

Alice nearly shrieked when a stone came flying out of nowhere. It must have meant that the Hatter was nearby if that rock was anything to go by. Keeping awfully quiet so not to give herself away, Alice slowly rose so that she could see over the grass. Hatter was very close by indeed; so close in fact, that if she so chose, she could reach out and take his hat right off his head. Her thought had only been thought in fact, when Hatter's hat flew straight off of his head. Quick as a wink, he looked up to find his hat floating in the air. "Give me back my hat you darn cat!" he yelled in a Scottish brogue. The hat just seemed to dance in the air before floating gracefully into the Hatter's eagerly awaiting hands. Alice stood from her hiding place and approached his side. "Oh Alice! Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you." He wiped the dirt off his hat, and proudly sat it atop his flaming hair. "I was hiding. You were peeking." Alice explained.

Hatter nodded. "That I seemed to be, but you are a very efficient hider dear Alice." Alice curtseyed. "Thank you."

"The pleasure is all mine, m'lady." He bowed and nearly kissed the ground.

"Hatter. How did your hat come off your head?" Alice hadn't seen the Cheshire Cat at all. Hatter's eyes narrowed. "Come out here you cowardice cretin!" he shouted into the clearing. A light rustling could be heard from behind the tree Alice had been hiding next to. She couldn't help but gasp in shock at who appeared.

"If you wish."

"You!" Hatter pointed an accusatory finger at the new person's form. "Were exiled!"

"That I was." said Ilosovic Stayne. "But I come bearing sad news." He held up his shackled hand to reveal a severed one. "And am in need of a blacksmith." He laughed as though he had informed the two of an extremely funny joke.

It was now that Alice was glad that Hatter's hat had flown off his head. If she had stayed where she was waiting for him, she would have come face to face with the Knave; the exact same Knave that had tried to seduce her at the Red Queen's castle. She would have also come face to face with the hand of said Red Queen, who according to Stayne had died in her sleep. "… and so, the only way to get back to be the bearer of bad news was to hack off her hand using a rock." Stayne informed the two, and held up his hand to admire his handiwork. "Not a bad job either if I say so myself." He tossed his hair, which had grown far longer than it had been previously, and matted.

"And you came back because?" Alice asked. She wasn't exactly enthralled with his story. Something didn't sound right about it. It was probably the fact that the Queen died 'peacefully' in her sleep.

"I came back because I had to bring back the news of her death you stupid girl!" apparently being in exile with a Red Queen gave you a short temper. Alice visibly blanched and took a step back; Hatter taking a step forward to place himself in between the two. "Knave. Watch yourself." He warned.

"Or what? The idiot bint is going to slay me too?" he fumed. 'Yes, being in exile with that vile woman has certainly given him a shorter temper' Alice said to herself. "Hatter." Alice warned. She didn't want him to get hurt because of her. He didn't listen to her. "It may not be Alice who slays you." He shrugged his shoulders and began to turn away slightly, allowing Stayne the chance to walk off, but he didn't.

"I wish the Jabberwocky had murdered you just like he did the Hightopp clan!" Stayne screamed at the two of them. He had also meant for it to hurt both of them; just in different ways.

Without warning, the Hatter cocked back his fist and punched the Knave square in the face. As Stayne had been ill prepared for such a feat, he received the blow full force and was shortly knocked out cold. All seven feet six inches of him hit the ground with a thud. The Hatter was about to attack the unconscious man, when Alice grabbed his arm and called his name. "Never speak ill of Alice or the Hightopps!!" he screamed at the form on the ground. "NEVER!"

"HATTER!" Alice pulled on his arm.

"I'm fine." He squeaked. Alice shook her head and placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you, but that wasn't necessary. Now we have to do something about the body." She pointed in disgust. She hadn't wanted to touch Stayne with a ten-foot pole, and now she had to with her hands. A shiver of displeasure ran up her spine. "Don't worry Alice my dear, I have a plan." The Hatter grinned a mischievous smile and grabbed Stayne by the arms, dragging him along the ground. "Follow me!"

- _An hour later._

"Did you really have to shove him through that door?" Alice shook her head as laughter erupted from her throat. The Hatter gave a hearty chuckle and spun Alice around in a circle. They had travelled half way across Underland, Hatter still dragging an unconscious Knave, in an attempt to rid Underland of the man. "It's only fair; he did it to me once." Alice couldn't believe it. Stayne had shoved an unconscious Hatter through a door in Wonderland? "And where, pray tell, did you end up?"

"Otherland of course!"

"Otherland?" Alice wasn't quite following anymore. She knew Underland existed; she was in Underland, but Otherland?

"Otherland would be where you are from." Hatter explained as if reading her thoughts. 'Oh. That makes sense now.' Alice nodded to herself, but was still unable to picture Hatter in her world. "Why did he do it?"

"Thought it would be a great practical joke. Though I couldn't see the funny side." Hatter frowned, causing his brows to meet in the middle.

"Oh."

"Yes, yes. I couldn't believe that your worldly flowers were so rude! They didn't even say hello!" Hatter flailed his arms in the air. Alice laughed.

"That's because they don't talk in my world Hatter."

"Why?"

"Because it isn't full of wonder like yours is." He accepted her answer and together they headed back to the tea table. They were to hurry if they wanted to make it by tea time.

"Come, come dear!" Hatter took off at a gallop, Alice following closely behind.

Meanwhile, Ilosovic Stayne lay in a clearing rubbing at his aching face. He never knew the Hatter could punch so hard. Slowly he sat up, he was rather dizzy and didn't want to faint just in case the wench, Alice, was still there.

As colours and objects came back into focus, he realised he was no longer in Underland.

"Damn you Hatter!" he screamed at the skies, causing two small bluebirds to fly off in fright.

Stayne had no idea as to the location of the door the madman had dragged him through, but he had a feeling it would be useless trying to find it. 'He's not as stupid as he looks' the Knave thought to himself as he tried to find anything that resembled a door. Nothing.

Grumbling to himself, he stood, then realised that he was no longer shackled. Someone had set him free. Being set free meant that he was no longer chained to that rancid hand of his former Queen's and he was no longer under rule by that airhead sister of hers. And it was all so because the Hatter had thrown him through a door to the Otherland.

With a whoop of joy, Stayne dashed off in search of a door, a house, a tree, anything in order to get back and taunt the Hatter for his stupidness. And then he would promptly return back here, where he was his own free man.

Yes Ilosovic Stayne definitely liked the sound of that.

**Author's Note:**

**:D**

**I just had to add in a little encounter with the Knave. It was too good to pass up.**

**Reviews help to create magic!**


	15. Dreaming of Hatter

**Author's Note:**

**For those of you are wondering, the gem of Underland has not been forgotten, nor has it left Underland itself.**

**That is why dear Stayne was able to pass between the worlds.**

**Enjoy the new chapter ;D**

**~**~**

Thackery sat at the tea table alone, teacup full of sweet tea in hand. He and Chessur had returned a little while ago, and Chessur being the decent Cheshire Cat that he was, had kept the hare some company whilst they waited for the two humans to make an appearance. After what was classed to be eons of waiting, Chessur had said his farewells and evaporated into thin air, leaving nothing but the outline of a wide grin in his stead.

So now, Thackery was sitting alone. He didn't mind it much though; he had the butter to talk to and his scone to nibble on. Hatter and Alice were awfully late for teatime. Where were they?

Unbeknownst to the March Hare, Hatter and Alice were not at all very far away. They were in fact behind a tree that if one bothered to peek around the side of, could see the tea table quite clearly. And could see the hare quite clearly sitting by his lonesome chatting away to the dish of butter about flying teacups and how naughty chocolate cream cakes were.

Hatter clapped rubbed his hands together, an unfamiliar shine appearing in his bright green eyes. He turned to Alice and pressed a finger to her lips. "Sssh." He whispered. "Now is the perfect time to startle." Alice was somewhat confused until she found March sitting at the table. "Startle? Poor March?" Hatter nodded gleefully.

"Pre-xactily. There's nothing like a good startle. I myself am a fan of a good startle, though it must be delivered in the most startling way possible. Otherwise it's not really a startle and more of an un-startle." His brows knit together as he contemplated what he had just said. "And an un-startle isn't as fun as a startle for either startler or startlee…" he trailed off into an intelligible ramble that Alice quickly put a stop to by placing both of her hands on his cheeks. "…beautiful." He finished his ramble and then motioned for Alice to be quiet once more. "I didn't say anything." Alice crossed her arms over her chest. "Well now you have, so this 'Ssh' is in advance." Hatter stated matter-of-factly.

"How are you even going to startle him anyway?" Alice asked curious now, as the Hatter crouched down towards the ground and began to slink forward; like a cat would stalk a bird. "Alice." Hatter turned his head towards her in order to sigh dramatically. "You may not know this, but I happen to be a perfectly expert startler." A cheeky grin crossed his face and within a blink of an eye, he was gone. Running as fast as he could towards the March Hare and the tea table. Alice could only watch in amazement at how fast he moved. Then she could only laugh at what he was shouting.

"March! Thackery! March-Thack!" Hatter was waving his arms around frantically, trying to gain his friend's attention; it was difficult as March was so engrossed in his conversation with the butter. He had moved onto how clever he was now. At the sound of the Hatter's voice though, he raised his head to watch the oncoming cloud of red hair. "What? Can't you see I'm busy here?" he motioned to his butter friend.

"Terribly sorry old friend." Hatter came to a halt in front of him and said 'hello fine sir.' to the butter dish. "But I must interrupt for a moment if you please." March huffed and waved his paw for the madman to continue.

Hatter cleared his throat. "The White Queen kissed the Knave! My Shoes taste like toffee! And finally, and this is my personal favourite, ALICE KINGSLEY LOVES ME!" the poor hare's eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he heard the one about the White Queen and the Knave; they just continued to get wider from there onwards, until he couldn't take it any longer and promptly fell from his chair in a dead faint.

"Well that's new." The Hatter remarked as Alice made her way up to him. "He's never done that before." Alice scooped down and picked up the poor creature, which never actually got to finish his conversation with the butter dish. "Let's put him somewhere comfortable shall we?" Hatter nodded and led her over to the couch, which Alice carefully placed March onto. "Tea?" Hatter asked hopefully. He could really do with a cup; he was fairly certain Alice would like one too. Alice nodded and he reached out for her hand, which she readily gave, and together they walked back out to the tea table.

"_Do you think they've found the gem yet?" Alice asked while taking a casual sip of her tea. Hatter furrowed his brow in thought. "I haven't the slightest." He replied._

"_And you aren't at all worried as to its whereabouts?" Alice was. Hatter shook his head._

"_It goes wherever it wants to go. When it wants to be found, then it shall." He reasoned._

"_Hmmm." Alice hmmm-ed as she took another sip of her tea. She didn't realise Hatter hadn't taken a sip of his tea for some time now. "Alice?" She looked up to find a piece of scone, lathered in jam and cream, being held in front of her mouth. Alice flicked her gaze towards the madman who only nodded his head and said, "For you." Alice opened her mouth and he placed it in, accidentally getting some cream on her top lip. "Allow me." He quickly swiped it off using his thumb and placed said thumb in his mouth, sucking the cream off in the process. "Hey that was mine!" Hatter cracked a grin._

"_And you're going to do what about it?" a blob of cream meet his face. Alice then proceeded to wipe bits and pieces off, taking her sweet time. Hatter, growing impatient as the cream was starting to run down his cheek, started wiping it off too._

"_Uh uh. That's mine." Alice purred as she grabbed his hand and licked the cream off his finger. His eyes bulged. This was new._

_Within mere moments his lips were ravishing hers. Alice moaned, and it only seemed to increase the fervour the Hatter currently possessed._

_Soon after that she had found herself swept up in his arms, being carried through the doorway of the house and past the unconscious March Hare, to Hatter's room upstairs. He gently placed her on the bed as if she were a queen and knelt down on the floor beside her, though still ravishing her slightly swollen lips with searing kisses. He wasn't on the floor for very long though; he lay next to her shortly afterwards. His hands tangled in her hair and pulled gently, and she gasped, not out of pain but the new experience of pleasure, and the Hatter took the moment to ravage the inside of her mouth. Alice clung to him tightly, as if he would disappear much like a dream would. Hatter tugged gently on her curls again and Alice moaned once again. He then left her mouth and began to trace delicate patterns on her neck with that expert mouth, and more importantly his tongue, causing Alice to moan just the little bit louder and press herself closer to his body. He withdrew and grinned at her; it was that trademark grin of his that showed when he was up to something that he probably shouldn't have been. Alice blushed a beautiful scarlet red, and then he was once again upon her, rolling over on top of her this time. Her eyes grew to the size of saucers as she felt him press against every inch of her body, which was getting hotter by the second, through her nightdress that he had kindly made. He claimed her lips again and ground against her lightly, enjoying the new sounds Alice was making, though was urged on because of them. One of his hands slowly trailed its way from her hair to her chest and she gasped. Thrilled that he, a hatter, was able to make these sounds come out of Alice, he ground against her harder now. Alice was writhing underneath him furiously; something was building, she could feel it._

"Alice?" a voice from somewhere far away sounded. Alice furrowed her brow, trying to hold onto the wonderful dream she had been having. Though, once she realised it was a dream, wondered what could have possibly been placed in her tea to make such a dream become so vivid. "Alice?" again the voice sounded and was accompanied by a small shake. Alice mentally groaned as her dream slipped away into nothing, as quickly as sand slips through fingers, and she opened her eyes to meet a pair of concerned green ones. "Hatter?" Alice mumbled, somewhat confused as to why he had woken her. "Alice, are you pretending to be a cat?" He asked concerned. 'A cat?' Alice thought to herself. 'But why would he think that? Unless he… Oh no!' Alice blushed a scarlet colour. She was ever so thankful that it was dark in the bedroom. Though she was certain that the Hatter was somehow able to see it, as he was able to see a fair many things without one noticing it. "Why would i be a cat Hatter?" Alice decided to play dumb this time round. She wasn't about to say that she had been dreaming of him doing things to her. "You were making noises." Hatter stated simply. "A cat was the first thing I could think of." It wasn't entirely true, but it would do for now. In actual fact, he had thought of something a little less innocent. "Oh. Well, no I wasn't being a cat." Alice replied, her face turning even redder if it were possible. "Good. I was scared I was going to wake up to an Alice with fur... and a tail." He chuckled, then kissed her forehead, and was able to feel how hot it was by doing so. "Goodnight Alice."

"Goodnight Hatter." Both settled back down for sleep; Alice slightly embarrassed that she had been caught making noises in her sleep and the Hatter ecstatic about the fact that whilst making those noises, it had been his name he had heard Alice utter several times. It was reassuring to know that Alice's dreams were involving him, as his were her.

**Author's Note:**

**There you are.**

**A little smut for you.**

**Its just my way of saying thanks for reading. :D**

**Food for thought: 'What do you think Knave is up to?'**

'**Will Alice have more dreams?' **

'**Will Hatter have dreams of Alice?'**

**Hmmm….**

**It's all just too hard isn't it?**


	16. A Very Alice Necklace

**Author's Note:**

**I AM SO SO SORRY!!!**

**I am a horrible author for making you wait for so long… but you see, reality has funny ways of slipping you notes, and then refusing to disappear…**

**So I have spent the last few days in reality, hoping to god that I could somehow fall back down a rabbit hole.**

**Finally… I did.**

**~**~**

"Alice?" the blonde in question stirred, but only slightly. She hadn't had that dream again since the Hatter had woken her up, but that didn't stop her from trying to grasp it once again. It always managed to slip through her fingers like silk though. "Alice?" again the voice sounded. Alice furrowed her eyebrows in irritation. She wasn't ready to wake up just yet, but this voice that kept invading her mind seemed quite insistent. "Alice?" this time Alice sighed and rolled over in her sleepy state, only to realise far too late, that the bed ended up she was about to fall off the edge. Her eyes flew open as she realised this and could see the floor just below her, though she never made contact with it. Strong arms encircled her and she was pulled back to the bed as a voice chuckled.

"Don't fall now dear Alice." Hatter gently swiped a stray curl from her face and pushed it back behind her ear. "We wouldn't want that now would we?" He still had his arms wrapped around her perfectly perfect small-ish frame. "What were you dreaming, that you refused to wake from?" he asked, actually curious. Alice didn't really want to say, so made a strange gurgling noise into the pillow by his ear. "I'm afraid I don't know that one." He confessed, arms behind his head. 'What a peculiar dream.' He thought to himself. "I said…" Alice had finally taken her head out of the pillow and was now facing him; her hair in disarray about her head. Her eyes still filled with bits of sleep, and her actions just that little bit less graceful. Hatter, being a fairly ungraceful man himself, loved it. "… I was dreaming about a cat." She finished, a light blush coming to her cheeks. 'Oh. It was that dream.' Hatter's eyes took on a playful gleam.

"Oh really!" He all but bounced in the bed. "What kind of cat was it? Was it big? Small? Ginger? White? Black? Mean? Placid?..." he began to trail off into one of those rambles of his.

Alice groaned and slumped back into the pillow, her face embedded into the pillow-y goodness.

"Alice? Alice, are you all right?" Hatter queried as he had now come out of his ramble and saw that Alice was once again face down in the pillow. She didn't say a word. "Oh Alice. Champion of Underland?" he picked up a lock of her hair and began to tickle the side of her face with it. No reaction. He tried again. A hand attempted to swipe the traitorous lock of blonde hair away.

Hatter sighed. 'Silly Alice. One mustn't fall back to sleep after sleeping for hours on end.' He thought long and hard about what might wake her up. 'Tea.' Was his final resolve.

With great care, he extracted himself from the tangle that was his and Alice's legs. Alice had fallen asleep on his chest at some stage, and somehow her legs had intertwined with his. Which he didn't mind at all, until it came to getting out of bed. After a few minutes however, he was out of the bed, and with a mightily big spring in his step, Hatter made his way downstairs in search of some darn good tea. Sure it wouldn't be as good as Alice's 'secret recipe' but it would be good tea all the same.

~**~

Ilosovic Stayne had spent the night traipsing the land in order to find a door back to Underland. After fruitlessly searching and turning up blank, he had made himself comfortable underneath an old, gnarled tree, that had a rabbit hole sitting next to it as well as the Knave himself.

It was under said tree that a maid found him that morning. Her screech awoke him, and within seconds the Knave had been on his feet; the maid had run off to alert the authorities. 'I do believe I have just committed my first felony' Ilosovic chuckled to himself. After just one night in Otherland, he had already done something wrong. "How did Alice do it?" he said to no one in particular, as he referred to Alice being able to cope being in another place and far from home.

_Home._

Although he wouldn't want to admit it out loud to anyone, he did miss Underland terribly. His previous idea of coming back here after taunting the Hatter just didn't seem fit anymore. He would much rather return and remain in Underland where everything was 'normal' to him. Even if that meant living under the rule of an airhead Queen. She was far better than her sister, Iracebeth, had ever been. How he was glad to be rid of that cow. All of her whining had nearly driven him as mad as a Hatter. Thank the Oraculum he had come across that rather large rock.

He smiled to himself as he reminisced. The reminiscing was cut rather short however, as in the distance a group of people could be seen, Ilosovic was able to see them because of his freakish stature, all of them looking rather unhappy and heading this way.

After taking a quick look around his person, to find an escape or something to fight with, the Knave spied the rabbit hole just to his left boot. 'It looks too deep to be an ordinary rabbit hole. I wonder…' Stayne kicked in some of the loose earth and awaited a noise of some sort. Nothing came. He threw down a stone. Still nothing. He was about to throw down several stones when he heard the faint sound of a stone hitting a marble floor. 'Jackpot!' with a triumphant smile, Stayne stepped into the abyss that was the rabbit hole, and disappeared from sight.

Just in time to escape the group of Otherland-ians, who were armed and being lead by a distraught maid, which were looking rather peevish.

~**~

Alice heard the door creak open, but didn't feel the need to see who it was that had entered the room. Only the Hatter would have dared enter, carrying a tea tray no less.

The aroma of the tea and freshly baked scones wafted through the air and reached Alice's nose. Her eyes flickered open and slowly she sat up, looking for where the Hatter had placed the tray.

The Hatter however, felt like a deer caught in car headlights. He had never been back into his room after leaving Alice asleep in it, and he wasn't sure whether he would be welcomed or not. He was immensely relieved when he smiled and patted the bed, welcoming him and his tray of tea and scones.

"Good. You're not sleeping." Hatter nodded his head as he sat on the bed, carefully balancing the tray on his knees. "Was there a reason as to why it was good that I'm not sleeping?" Alice asked as she reached around him to acquire a cup of tea. Turning his body to further enable her access to the tray, Hatter took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a brief second. Or what he thought was a brief second; apparently he was wrong. "Hatter? Are you alright?" Alice asked, concerned that his eyes had been closed for so long. Green eyes met blue and the Hatter beamed. "I have your gift!" he exclaimed, nearly tipping the tea tray onto the floor, before realising it and carefully placing onto the empty bed space beside him. "A gift? You know you didn't need to Hatter." Alice took a sip of tea as he rose from the bed and began searching through one of his many drawers for it.

"Aha!" gently the Hatter pulled something silver from the drawer he was looking through, and then quickly shut it in order to keep something inside. After Alice had asked, he explained that it was an infernal dust bunny, bent on ravaging his room. 'At least something would be getting ravaged' Alice thought, then scolded herself for such thoughts. If only her mind was able to keep to itself and not tell Alice these sort of things. It was improper and un-lady like. But then again, many things that Alice did were improper and un-lady like.

"Close your eyes please." Hatter had hid whatever it was behind his back and had a look about him that said 'I will not take no as an answer'. Alice closed her eyes and felt something cool and smooth encircle her neck. "Surprise!" Hatter beamed, having forgotten to tell Alice that she could now open her eyes. Alice took his exclamation as the signal to open her eyes however and when she looked down, she couldn't help but marvel at the little bit of necklace that she saw. The heart pendant was gorgeous and changed colours, currently it was a deep blue colour, and sat at just the right height; not too low, not too high. "It's beautiful." Alice breathed as she stroked the pendant.

"It's a very Alice necklace." Hatter found a mirror, one that wasn't cracked or broken, and showed Alice her reflection.

At first Alice really didn't want to look into the mirror, afraid of what she might see if she did so, but after the Hatter had reassured her that she looked very much like an Alice who had just been sleeping, she finally took a glance at his handiwork. The Hatter was very talented; Alice didn't know of anyone who could have made a finer necklace. She sat there staring at her reflection for a few moments before a white face and orange hair joined her reflection. "Boo!" Hatter shouted at his reflection in an attempt to scare it away. It just stared back at him. He pulled several faces, all of which were pulled right back at him. Alice giggled and then joined him, pulling faces at both his and her reflections. "T'is quite difficult to scare them away is it not?" Hatter asked while poking his tongue out and pulling his ears. "Quite." Alice agreed and together they fell in a pile of laughs. Something Hatter was amazed with; he knew one could laugh and fall in a pile, but a pile of laughs was entirely new. He would have to put that in the 'To Be Thought About Later' jar of his, that was somewhere in this room. He would have to think about that later too.

It was as they surfaced from their pile of laughs that Hatter glanced down to Alice's very Alice necklace and his eyes widened in shock as his face lost some of its vibrant colour. At first glance, he had mistaken it as one of the crystals he used on his hats, but now that he had actually looked at it, it was awfully familiar. The crystal that was being observed changed colour, and it wasn't an ordinary colour, oh no. The colour it changed to was white. And on top of that white was a red heart. As well as a spade, a club and a diamond.

"What is it Hatter?" Alice asked as he was still looking at her necklace. A white hand outstretched to grasp the necklace and Hatter rubbed the gem in order to make sure it wasn't just his eyes playing tricks on him; they did that very often and very often led to a trouble of some sort.

"Gem… Underland… me…" he wasn't making much sense at all.

"Hatter, can you repeat that please?" Alice grabbed his face in order to make his eyes draw away from her neck and chest area.

Hatter swallowed, his throat feeling awfully dry. He doubted even tea would help, but still he continued on. "I used the gem of Underland." He pointed back to the necklace. "There." Alice looked down at her necklace.

"Well the gem of Underland makes an awfully pretty necklace." She stated. Hatter laughed and the colour that had been lacking, returned. "Well I guess we go see the White Queen now?" Alice asked as she slid out of the bed; Hatter picking up the tea tray.

"One would presume so." Hatter agreed. "Dress and we shall to Marmoreal first thing today." Alice nodded and searched for a dress to wear as the Hatter left the room.

He was just glad that the White Queen, Mirana, was ruling and not her sister. He would have definitely lost his head for making a necklace out the precious gem.

~**~

'Well this is new' Stayne thought to himself. He was used to falling, heck he was a Knave; falling and rolling, etc was part of the job. But falling for more than a few seconds was a new kind of falling, and Ilosovic wasn't too sure if he liked it or not. But that wouldn't wreck his good mood, for not only had he escaped the people 'up there', but he had also found a way back into his beloved Underland.

A grand piano whizzed past Stayne's head and he was thankful he didn't hit his head on it; or any other part of his person. Stayne hated bruises and wounds on his person. It was a mark of failure in his opinion. A gloved hand unconsciously traced the scar on his face; yes it was a permanent mark of failure that would not go away. Ilosovic brushed aside the melancholy feelings as he found that the ground was slowly coming closer and closer.

After a few more seconds, Stayne rolled in the air, positioning his feet towards the ground. An umbrella floating nearby was used to slow his fall and when there were only a few more metres left to solid ground, he let the umbrella go, landing on the ground, which was really the ceiling, with a menacing thud; causing dust to rise.

Stayne smiled a sinister smile. Oh yeah, it was good to be back. He was rubbing his hands together gleefully until he realised that he was in fact standing on a ceiling and the ground was below him. The room had righted itself, and with a thud, which lacked his usual Knave like grace, he fell into a tangle of limbs and black clothing. "Ouch."

**Author's Note:**

**I am such a naughty author for leaving you hanging for so long…**

**Please don't chop off my head… I implore you!**

**Well the good news is that I am on holidays for two weeks and so will hopefully have enough time to update my story and hopefully finish it off…**

**Which then allows me to start my little story about the Hatter without giving everything away!**

**Anyway…**

**See the little green button down there?**

**Yeah, go on and push that. You know you want to :P**


	17. We Must Log Leap!

"Hatter, how much longer to Marmoreal?" Alice asked as she slipped the necklace back under the neckline of her dress. Both her and the Hatter had thought it best to try and keep it hidden. "Oh, well, see that tree there?" he pointed to a lone blossom tree that was swaying gently in the breeze. "Yes?" Alice wasn't sure where he was going with this.

"That tree there normally means we are about two thirds of the way. Though it does tend to move from time to time. No one really knows why either. Perhaps the soil is better in the other places where the tree can be found?" a pale hand rubbed his chin as Hatter contemplated the idea. "Oh yes! We are two thirds of the way there! I can see some of the castle now!" Alice followed his gaze but found nothing. "Or perhaps it was a cloud? Odd. There are never clouds in Underland; fog yes, but no clouds." Hatter shrugged and leapt over a rather small fallen log. He then turned to the blonde with a huge grin on his face. "Come Alice! We must log leap!" at Alice's confused face, he explained that log leaping was a fun, if not unconventional, way to travel and that it would make the rest of the trip more enjoyable. Alice laughed at this, but joined in nonetheless.

After log leaping for what seemed like minutes, a grin appeared in front of Alice's face, which was shortly followed by a pair of luminescent green orbs and a face of a cat. "Such a pretty necklace Alice." The Cheshire Cat purred as he lifted the chain to get a better look at the jewellery. "Hello Chessur." Alice greeted politely. The cat lifted the necklace to his face for a better look and the grin he always wore stretched just a little bit wider; if it were even possible. But this was Underland and anything here was possible. "Well, well, well. What have we here Alice?" Hatter ran over and snatched Chessur's paw away.

"We don't have anything. Now be gone with you!" he waved his hands in Chessur's face in an attempt to shoo him away. After floating back a few paces, Chessur let his grin falter for a second. "I'm hurt Hatter. After all I did for you? Tsk, tsk." Hatter growled menacingly and looked as though he were about to lunge at the floating cat. Chessur took it as his cue to leave. "At least we don't have to keep searching for the bloody thing." And with a wave he wished them a pleasant day and promised to show up for tea at some stage, before vanishing into thin air.

Hatter's hands were balled up into fists at his side; he was trying desperately to calm down. Sometimes he really hated that cat. "Hatter?" Alice placed both of her hands on either side of his face and turned it towards her, so she could get a good look at his face. "I'm fine." He squeaked and his eyes that had been an angry orange colour returned to their familiar bright green. "Are you sure?" Hatter nodded and grasped Alice's hand in one of his. "Lets us away. We mustn't keep the Queen waiting."

~**~

Meanwhile in Marmoreal, the White Queen, Mirana was looking out at the scenery from her favourite balcony. It was the one that Alice had raced to and conversed with Absolem the night before the battle.

It was always peaceful on this balcony; Mirana especially enjoyed it as she was able to think her thoughts without interruption here most days, and allow her arms to drop to her sides if she so pleased.

She sighed and crossed her arms on the balustrade; she wondered what Alice was doing today?

"My Queen?" Mirana glanced around but saw nothing. A smile graced her lips and she stood up straight. "Hello Chess." Said cat appeared behind her and wrapped itself around her shoulders. "Alice and the Hatter are on the way. They have something you may be interested in."

"Oh really?" she had a fair idea of what it was, but decided it was better not to ask. The White Queen did after all enjoy surprises. "Indeed." Chessur's body left her shoulders and his head floated just in front of his face. "But I can see you would much rather find out on your own, so I won't say." He grinned.

"Thank you Chess. Is there anything else?" Mirana asked politely. She really did like the Cheshire Cat, but sometimes she found him to be quite annoying. 'Must be how Hatter feels every time Chess takes his hat' Mirana mused. "Only that they should be at the beginning of the drive now." Chess shrugged his semi visible shoulders and then bid the Queen farewell before once again disappearing.

The Queen entered the castle in search of a dear friend. Bayard was having the day off to be with his family, something Mirana understood completely, and so was unavailable. But there was another who she could choose for this task; even if she had only just come back from her adventure. Mirana entered the kitchen to find the March Hare stirring something in a pot and ducked just in time to avoid the spoon he had just flung at her. "March, have you seen Mally?" the Queen asked airily, her arms held up daintily, even after avoiding the spoon. "My Queen?" a small voice asked from inside a teacup.

"Ah Mallymkun…" The White Queen quirked a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "What are you doing in that teacup?"

"Well you see, it's safer in here than on the bench. March tends to shatter things just there." She pointed to a particular point on the bench. As if to demonstrate Mally's point, March shattered an empty teacup there. "Ah. I see." Mirana held her hand out and Mallymkun climbed onto her hand. "I trust your travels went well."

"Indeed they did your majesty. Salazen Grum is just as abandoned as ever." Mirana nodded. "If you would be so kind to help me out with a certain task Mallymkun?" the dormouse nodded vigorously. "Of course! What is it that you require?"

"A certain Hatter and his friend Alice at the start of the drive. I was wondering if you be able to greet them?" Mallymkun jumped up and down at the idea.

"I shall! I shall!" Mirana placed the now excited mouse on the bench top again.

"Thank you Mally."

"If that is all you require of me I shall take my leave now?" Mirana nodded and Mallymkun scurried off, eager to see her friends again.

The White Queen strode over to stand beside Thackery the March Hare. "And what are you doing down here?"

"MAKING TEA!" March all but shouted towards the woman in white. Then added as an afterthought. "My Queen."

Said Queen clapped her hands together. "Perfect."

~**~

Mallymkun the dormouse practically flew out of the castle's front doors and began a frantic run down towards the drive. 'It seemed so much shorter beforehand' she grumbled to herself. Though at that time she had been eager to reach the castle and its inhabitants. It was a bit different to be running away from it.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the look on Hatter's face when I tell him where I've been!" she chuckled to herself and then put as much power into her run as she could. Determined to reach the madman and Alice before they reached the halfway point of the drive.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey there!**

**So sorry for being late with my update.**

**I didn't really know what I wanted to write for this chapter.**

**Also I am trying to drag it out just a little bit longer for you all, as it gives me time to plan my little add on story.**

**It was brought to my attention that Mally was missing from the first scenes, so I added her in here. You will find out more about her adventures later. (Hopefully!)**

**Also, Alice has only been in Underland for four or so days.**

**Just thought I'd let you know for those who were a little unsure :)**

**Well I guess that's all for the moment…**

**Hope you enjoyed the shorter than usual (I promise I'll make the last chapter really long!) chapter.**

**And don't worry; there will be a few more chapters before the long end one. I'm not sure how many, but a few there shall be.**


	18. Marmoreal

**Author's Note:**

**Hey guys!**

**I'm sorry I have once again taken so long to update, but I got a bit distracted.**

**You see my friends just got back from a month's travel and being the buddy that I am, I went and spent some time with them.**

**Anywho, a thank you to the Lady Meow for letting me know that I have been nominated for fanfic of the month!**

**Polls are now open and you can vote for your favourite through this link:**

**http : // thereadershavechosen. eternflame. com/ forum/ index. php? topic= 1602.0**

**Just remove all of the spaces and you should be fine.**

**Now, **

**On to the story!**

**~**~**

"And that, my dear, is how I came across this orange spot." The Hatter pointed to an orange spot on his index finger. Alice took a look but couldn't find the particular spot he was pointing to. Nearly every finger had an orange smudge or spot of some sort. "Oh, I see." The look on her face must have led the Hatter to believe that she didn't see, as he spent the next few minutes trying to show her again.

"Look! It's… right… there!" he was pointing frantically at his finger.

"I'm sorry Hatter, but nearly every finger of your's is orange." Alice stated calmly. Upon further inspection, Hatter had to agree with her that for someone who didn't see his hands everyday, it would be rather difficult to find. Alice, figuring this would be the quickest way to end the strange conversation agreed. Unfortunately for her, Hatter just started rambling about the orange spot on his wrist.

Alice would have smacked herself in the head out of frustration if she weren't distracted by a small figure bouncing along the path ahead of them. It seemed to be running towards the two of them. "Hatter? Who is that?" His head stared off in the direction Alice was pointing. "Well, I can't be sure… Mallymkun?"

"Hatter!" A tiny voice shouted. Hatter's eyebrows flew up into his hairline and his eyes grew to the size of saucers. "Mally!!" without further ado, he started sprinting towards the Dormouse, with Alice not far behind.

"Hatter!" Mally was delighted to find that the Hatter could indeed recognise her, even after she had been gone for a few days or so. Picking up as much speed as she could, she ran even faster towards the duo.

Finally, the three reached each other, though Mallymkun was just a little disappointed that it had been a little less than half way by the time she had reached them. "Not to worry Mally. You beat us to the castle." Alice cheered the little mouse up.

"Precisely!" Hatter exclaimed nodding his head so fast, it was a miracle his hat managed to stay on his head. "But how exactly did you beat us here?" Alice was a little confuzzled (Hatter's way of saying confused) at first, but Mally understood what he was trying to say. "Ooh Hatter! Guess where I've been!" She climbed atop the hand he offered her and they set off back towards the castle.

The rest of the walk back to the castle consisted of guessing where dear Mallymkun had been, and though it began to get tedious after a while, Alice was grateful she didn't have to hear about orange spots any longer.

"Hmm… a teacup?"

"No."

"McTwisp's house?"

"No."

"Err, the caucus race?"

"No."

"You've been here all along?"

"No Hatter."

"And I was so sure that was right." He rubbed his chin in thought, but never got to voice his next guess as they had arrived at the castle doors.

"Oh look! Doors!" Hatter clapped his hands together gleefully. Alice stifled a laugh with her hand and Mallymkun rolled her eyes. "Opening the doors would be helpful Hatter."

"Oh, yes, of course. Terribly sorry." Alice couldn't help herself; a light chuckled erupted from her throat, which was quickly smothered in an attempt to appear as though she hadn't been laughing when the Hatter turned back around to her. A huge grin was plastered across his pale face and he bowed low enough to dislodge Mally from his shoulder and gracefully land on the ground that was only inches away. Once he swept out of his bow, grin still in place, he gestured with his hand. "Ladies first."

"Why thank you dear sir." Alice curtseyed and both her and Mallymkun walked inside, the Hatter following shortly after.

"Now The White Queen was in the kitchen when I last saw her." the Dormouse stood scratching her chin in confuzzlement. She had led the group into the kitchen in an effort to find the Queen, but she was no longer in the kitchen, and neither was Thackery; which was odd in itself. He was always making tea or something along those lines. _Tea. _The March Hare had been making tea when she left. "This way!" she scurried out of the kitchen and towards the gardens. Hatter shrugged towards Alice and together they followed their friend outside, who had found a table set up with various tea things and a March Hare and a Queen sitting at said table.

"Yer all late for tea!" March threw a teapot at no one in particular, though it narrowly missed the Hatter's head. He didn't blink an eyelid at the occurrence; he was used to such madness. "Terribly sorry March, dear friend. We aren't too late I hope."

"Of course not Hatter, you are right on time." The White Queen rose from the table, her arms held aloft as she gave them a charming smile, that in Alice's opinion, would have melted the hearts of many men 'up there'. "Oh good! You know I've never been late for tea. Never ever, ever. Well at least not until Time and I had that little disagreement." He pulled out a chair for Alice, which she gratefully sat down on, and then pulled out the Queen's seat for her. Once all the women were comfortable, he made his way to the empty seat next to Alice and finally sat down, already pouring cups of tea before his rear had even hit the cushion. "Thank you Hatter." Alice took her teacup from his hands and daintily sipped at her tea. "You get it right every time." A light blush powdered the Hatter's cheeks at Alice's compliment but after turning away for a second or two, it was gone. "It's the least I could do for the champion of Underland." This time it was Alice's turn to blush. She had forgot she was Underland's champion. For the last few days, she had just been 'Alice'. Now that she was in Marmoreal, she would be known as 'The Alice. Champion of Underland.' Although it wasn't too bad, she still preferred the former title.

Mirana, who had watched the entire exchange, could not help but sigh dreamily. It was quite obvious to anyone who bothered to look that the Hatter and Alice were very much in love with each other. 'How sweet.'

"Pardon my Queen?" The Hatter was looking at her with a puzzled expression. Mirana mentally slapped herself; she had accidentally said that out loud! "I was talking about this cupcake just here. It looks quite sweet." Hastily, but with a Queen-ly grace, she picked up the cupcake on the tray in front of her, trying ever so hard not to let anything else slip out of her mouth. "Don't you think?" she showed the miniscule cake to the others at the table and everyone apart from Alice seemed to be none the wiser to her little slip up. "I suppose it does look quite sweet. Don't you Alice?" the Hatter turned to face Alice, and she had to pretend that she was scrutinising the cupcake and not the woman holding it. "Yes it does look quite sweet. If the pink icing is anything to go by." Alice stated, and the Queen smiled at her. There was something about the smile however, that led Alice to believe that the Queen knew something that the others did not. She would have to speak to her later.

For now however, she would just enjoy her tea with her friends.

"CLEAN CUP! MOVE DOWN!" March cried and everybody at the table scrambled to find a new seat without any cake or tea stains all over it.

Tea was beginning to finish up; most of the food had disappeared, whether it was in people's stomachs or on the ground, Alice couldn't fathom, and the tea was mostly gone also. Mallymkun had excused herself to go and visit Bayard and Bielle's pups who she had promised to visit, Thackery the March Hare was beginning to pile up many different plates and cups and the Queen figured he would end up throwing them at whoever was last at the table, so she decided to beat a hasty retreat. "Alice. I have a few things to attend to now, but would you like to accompany me on a walk later on?" Alice quickly agreed, as she wanted to ask the Quee- Mirana, (she had promised to call her by her name when in the private or in the company of a few friends) about what she had called 'sweet' before. Alice knew it had nothing to do with the cupcake; she had covered up a great many things in her lifetime in London and the Queen lacked one thing in particular. A decent story. She hadn't even spared the cupcake a glance until the Hatter had caught her out. "Wonderful!" Mirana trilled. "How about we meet back here at, say, six?"

"I would be delighted your majesty." Alice received a light telling off for not calling her Mirana, before the Queen bid them farewell and gracefully left the table with her arms aloft.

"We should leave also." The Hatter whispered, gesturing to the Hare. "Whilst he is busy gathering his ammunition." Without another word, the duo quickly escaped the tea table, leaving March on his own and with a pile of dishes and cups as tall as a Bandersnatch was high.

"Darnit! Where'd everyone go?" March hmphed to himself and crossed his arms over his chest.


	19. A New Purpose

"Quickly! Quickly now, or he'll find us" the madman was dragging a giggling Alice along a white corridor covered in various landscape paintings of Underland. "Hatter where are we going!" Alice managed to choke out between bursts of giggles. They had remained behind a pillar and had seen how the March Hare had reacted to the presence of no one. Hatter had to drag Alice off before she could alert the crazy hare as to their whereabouts. "It's a surprise" the Hatter glanced back, sporting a Cheshire Cat grin on his face. With equal or more fervour, Alice wasn't too sure as she was having trouble keeping up with him either way, Hatter pulled her down another corridor before stopping outside a door at the end of it.

"Close your eyes." He instructed and was about to open the door when Alice asked him how she was to see where she was going if her eyes were to be closed. "I'll guide you! Then you will still keep your eyes closed!" Hatter was pretty ecstatic about his revelation.

"All right then." Alice shut her eyes tightly, but the Hatter wasn't going to just believe that. He pulled face, after face, after face, until he was completely certain her eyes were closed. He had just poked out his tongue at first, but then had moved on to doing a silent jig and then finally hovering his face barely inches away from Alice's. During all of this however, not one giggle had erupted, reassuring the Hatter that Alice had indeed shut her eyes.

After opening the door, carefully grasping her hands in his, Hatter led Alice into the room, placing her in the centre of the room before rushing to close the doors again.

"Can I open my eyes yet?"

"NO!" arms flailing, Hatter ran back and clamped a hand over both of Alice's eyes. "No peeking Alice." He chuckled as the lower half of Alice's face, the part that was visible, began to form a pout. The pout however, caught itself and reverted back to Alice's normal look.

"Surprise!" Hatter withdrew his hand from her face and Alice opened her eyes.

"Oh my!" she gasped.

Hats upon hats greeted her eyes. Some were on shelves; others on mannequins, and some were strewn all over the floor like back at the house, well technically a mill, which the Hatter and March Hare, and now Alice, called home. "You made all of these?" it was a silly question, but nothing else came to Alice's mind at the time. "I did. Though some I would rather not take credit for." A frown appeared on the madman's face. It did not go unnoticed. "Why? Hatter, they are all so beautiful. I would take credit for every beautiful hat in here, if I had made them." This seemed to brighten the man's spirits; a grin replaced the frown and he strode forward to point out a few hats he was particularly proud of.

"And you made all of them here?" another silly question on Alice's behalf, but the Hatter gave a chuckle and replaced the white hat in her hands with a dainty purple one. "What point of a royal Hatter am I if I don't make hats in a royal castle?" Alice was about to open her mouth to reply, but found the sense in his statement and closed it again.

"Oh I almost forgot!" Hatter clapped his hands together and then ran off, only to come back a few seconds later and tell Alice's muscles not to move as he once again disappeared.

He reappeared a few minutes later with a piece of paper in hand and a pencil in the other. "I began to think you got lost." Alice joked and he gave her an apologetic smile. "I misplaced this." He held up the paper, and then gave it to Alice to have a look at. It was a sketch of a dress, though it was nothing like the green and purple one he had made for her to wear. This one was much more elegant. "Do you like it?" Hatter asked whilst anxiously wringing his hands. "It's beautiful Hatter. Though I must ask, who is it for?" His eyes took on the sheen of a child excited at Christmas time. "It's for you dear Alice! The Queen asked me to make you a dress for the ball you see." He began wringing his hands again. "And she asked me to design it but I wasn't sure if I had gotten it right, or if you would like it, or if you would be your proper Alice size or if you would be small because of pishalver, or large because of upelkuchen and I-I-I" Alice gently grabbed his face between her hands. "I wanted it to be perfect for you." He finished.

"Hatter it is perfect and I love it very much." she placed a loving kiss on his lips and pulled away, only to have her face grasped and pulled back towards the same pair of lips she had just kissed.

The kiss became passionate and Alice lost complete control of her senses. She surrendered completely to the Hatter as it was a lot easier to do than to try and fight it. He devoured her mouth hungrily, his hands gliding over her body as if they had a mind of their own. He took a step forward, causing Alice to take a step backward and he continued to do this, backing Alice up against part of a wall that wasn't covered in shelving and hats. As she bumped into the wall Alice gasped, allowing the Hatter further access to her mouth. He plundered her mouth and Alice could feel her skin tingling everywhere that the Hatter touched. She could feel herself becoming dizzy and was slightly relieved when Hatter left her mouth and started trailing kisses along her neck to her collarbone. A hand grasped her waist and pulled her closer and Alice was all too aware of his body pressing against hers. She moaned and Hatter returned back to her mouth and began teasing it with little nips here and there. A frustrated groan was uttered and Hatter chuckled before pressing his lips to hers once again.

He ground his pelvis against her and Alice could feel what this was doing to him and was a little shocked at what she was doing. She was in a hat room, making out with the man of her dreams and she was shameless. If her mother ever saw this, she would probably die of embarrassment. Good thing this was Alice's Wonderland then. She wound her hands into the madman's hair and took a tiny step forward, pressing herself against the bulge in his pants even more. It was a thrilling experience; something she never thought she would do. But all too soon it ended.

The Hatter chose that moment to come to his senses and take a tiny step back. "We really shouldn't. Not here, like this." He breathed heavily. Alice pouted and but understood and nodded her head. She didn't want her first time to be in a hat room in the palace of the White Queen. She wanted it to be with the Hatter in the safety and confines of somewhere much more cosier.

Hatter placed a tender kiss on her forehead and then stepped back to look at her. "You look properly mussed." He shook his head, but the massive grin on his face gave him away. "Only by the best." Alice teased as she crossed her arms over her chest. A chuckle escaped the Hatter and he approached. "Let the best fix this then." And with skilful fingers, he began to fix up Alice's hair and smooth out her dress.

"Your turn." Hatter obliged and stood still so Alice could fix up his hair and his jacket and ascot.

After both were presentable, Hatter asked what time Alice was meant to meet the Queen.

"My goodness! You don't want to be late Alice!" his watch told him that if she didn't hurry, she would be quite late indeed and that wouldn't be good at all.

He ushered her out of the room and quickly shut the doors behind them. "Well it seems I have found another purpose for that room." Alice blushed and Hatter took her hand whilst chortling. "And I have you to thank my dear." Alice's blush deepened. Hatter's grin spread from ear to ear. He had managed to make her blush a fair few time today, and each one had been adorable. He quite liked her blushes; they were quite pretty and he tried to imagine what kinds of fabrics he could liken the colour to.

However he was pulled form his musings with a 'Hatter?' from Alice.

"Yes?"

"Weren't we going to see the Queen?"

"Well you were my dear. I can do whatever I wish."

"Could you please escort me? I seem to have forgotten where the tea table was set up."

"Oh yes! Of course!" He offered his arm. "Right this way my lady." Alice giggled and took his arm, but insisted it wasn't needed.

"Well you said I was to escort you! This is how I escort!"

They had rounded the corner when Alice realised that Hatter had forgotten his hat, which had been thrown somewhere whilst Alice had tangled her hands in his hair.

"Don't move your muscles Alice!" Hatter held up his hands to accentuate to her to stop and he took off at a sprint, back to the hat room.

Within moments he was back, top hat resting atop his orange hair. "Right this way dear Alice." He offered his arm once again. "You told me to escort you." Alice rolled her eyes and took his arm, but her grin gave her away. "That I did."

They finally managed to get back to the gardens; no more interruptions were made along the way and to top it all off, Alice was just a little bit earlier than the White Queen herself.

**Author's Note:**

**Wow two updates in one day!**

**i must love you guys.**

**Also, don't forget to vote for fic of the month on:**

**http : // thereadershavechosen. eternflame. com/ forum/ index. php? topic= 1602.0  
**


	20. Author's Note

I am so terribly sorry for such a long wait for another installment of 'The Third Visit to Wonderland' but I have been terribly busy with exams and just life in general.

I promise to those, who haven't given up on my story and are still waiting, that you will get an update soon. I have holidays coming up in a week and a bit. You will get an update then, unless I have tons of free time beforehand.

A major apology for being tardy, I know how the White Rabbit hates it, and you probably do too.

But I promise to stick with my plan.

~Barn~


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